LAND 

WITHOUT 

CHIMNEY 




Mexici 



BY 



ALFRED OSCAR COFFIN, 




CANNOT LEAVE THE LIBRARY. 

Chap .fcjj/.tf. 

Shelf.JLl.^ 



__ 







= 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




a LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

9—165 



Land Without Ghimneys 



oza- 



The Byways of Mexico. 



BY 

Alfred Oscar voffin, Ph.D. 



•attlu 



CINCINNATI, OHIO, 

THE EDITOB PUBLISHING CO., 

1898. 



Copyright, 1898, by 
The Editor Publishing Company. 



1st COPY, 
1o98. 



y"bo f\Jl 





TO 

PROFESSOR HELEN C. MORGAN, 

MY FORMER TEACHER, 

THIS BOOK 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The San Juan Valley 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Valley of Mexico 



Page. 
10 



CHAPTER II. 
Saltillo and the Plateau - 29 

CHAPTER III. 
San Luis Potosi --.... 45 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Bill of Fake . _ «» 



CHAPTER V. 
In the Valley of the Laja - 76 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Vale of Anahuac 00 



107 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Shbine of Guadalupe ----- 118 

CHAPTER IX. 

Public Buildings - - - . . . 141 

CHAPTER X. 

The Paseo and Bull Fight ----- 153 

CHAPTER XI. 
La Viga Canal - - - . . 168 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Suburbs ------- 179 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Within the Gates ---_.. 



192 



v 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Page. 

The Trail of the Tangle-Foot 222 

CHAPTER XV. 
The City of the Angels ... - 232 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Pyramid of Cholula ----- 241 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Las Tierkas Calientas ----- 248 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma - - - 269 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Cities of the Plain ., - - - 282 

CHAPTER XX. 
Dives and Lazarus ------ 294 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Political Economy ------ 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Prehistoric Ruins ------ 312 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Aztec Cosmogony and Theogony 322 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Lost Atlantis ------ 331 

CHAPTER XXV. 

CONCLUSION ------- 348 



A LAND WITHOUT CHIMNEYS. 



PREFACE. 



THIS book is not sent forth to fill a long- 
felt want; nor does the author hope to 
convince all his readers to his way of 
looking at the social and religious problems of 
Mexico. 

As a teacher of modern languages, the author 
went to Mexico solely for the purpose of master- 
ing the language, but the remembrance of that 
enjoyable stay allured him like a bird of passage 
when the spring has come, and so he returned 
to study the people. 

If what he has written will help any one to 
better understand our next door neighbor, his 
humble efforts have not been in vain. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SAN JUAN VALLEY. 

DID it ever occur to the American reader 
that there lives a people numbering 
twelve millions, who know not the com- 
forts of the fire-place, nor the discomforts of 
soot and chimney-swallows ? And yet there 
lives just such a people at our very doors; just 
across the Rio Grande, in that strange land of 
romance and fiction, where the sixteenth and 
nineteenth centuries go hand-in-hand and never 
unite ; where the variation in temperature is less 
than at any other place on the globe ; where an 
ancient race live among the ruined temples and 
pyramids of a race they know not of ; where the 
traveler finds mouldering ruins of hewn stone 
engraved with figures and animals that have no 
likeness anywhere else, except amid the ruins 
of Egypt ; it is here you find the Land Without 
Chimneys. The land of Montezuma ; the spoil 
of Cortez; the treasure-house of Spain; the 
modern Mexico, where fact and fancy so mingle 
with romance and fable, that we hardly know 
when we have reached historical data. 

When the Spaniards reached Mexico in 1518, 
they found that the Toltec history, done in pic- 
ture-writing, was the most reliable source of 
information obtainable in this strange fairy-land. 
10 



tfhe San Juan Valley. 11 

From these idiographic paintings we learn 
that the Aztecs, or Mexicans, entered the valley 
from the north ahout 1200 A. D. Before the 
Aztecs came, the valley was occupied hy the 
Chicimecs, and before they had pitched their 
tents around their capital hill, Chapultepec, the 
Toltecs had ruled supreme. 

The Toltecs, being exiled from Tollan, their 
ancient capital near lake Tulare, wandered a 
hundred and twenty years, until, in 667, A. D., 
they came to the bank of a river, where they 
founded another city which they called Tollan, 
or Tula, in honor of their ancient capital. The 
ruins of this ancient city lie twenty-five miles 
from the city of Mexico . During the reign of their 
eighth king, a famine drove the Toltecs south, 
whither many emigrated to Yucatan and Guate- 
mala, where the Toltec language is still spoken. 
But before the Toltecs, there lived in Yucatan 
the Maya race, the most ancient in Mexico, 
whose tradition dates to the year 793 B.C., when 
they arrived in Yucan by water from Tulapam. 
Here tradition is lost until we examine the 
ancient ruins and pyramids of Uxmal and 
Copan, whose walls are nine feet thick and cov- 
ered with the finest facades found in America ; 
and then language fails us as we gaze upon the 
massive walls of the pyramid of Copan, contain- 
ing twenty-six million cubic feet of stone 
brought from a distant quarry, whose base is 
six hundred twenty-four feet by eight hun- 
dred nine feet, and a tower one hundred eighty- 
four feet, built of massive blocks of stone, and 
surmounted by two huge trees rooted in its 
mold. 

Within the inside are statues and hierogly- 



i2 Land Without Chimneys. 

phics and inscriptions which tell to the world 
their history, but they speak in an unknown 
tongue, which may tell us of their Tulapani on 
the lost Atlantis. In despair, we give up the 
riddle of the first people of Mexico, and take a 
nearer view of the present inhabitants. The 
country is divided into three parts — the coast 
region called tierra calienta, where the tropical 
sun makes life a burden, and engenders that 
scourge of Mexico, el vomito, or yellow fever. 

Midway between the eoast and the mountain 
is the tierra templada, where the mean tempera- 
ture is 68° F. The tierra fria, or cold country, is 
the plateau which caps the crest of the Cordil- 
leras, so different from the mountains of the 
rest of the world that a carriage road was built 
for eight hundred miles along the crest of the 
mountains, without the service of an engineer. 

Here the mean temperature is 63° F., and on 
account of the altitude rain seldom falls, and, 
where it does fall, the porous amygdaloid rocks 
absorb it so quickly that the plateau is a verit- 
able desert, where the cactus and other thorny 
plants have taken possession of soil and rock 
alike. What adds more than anything else to 
its barrenness, is the utter lack of forest tree or 
green grass. Everywhere, for miles and miles 
of landscape, the eye meets only the bare rock 
and brown earth, with here and there the ever- 
present cactus and its kind. 

What wonder is it that nearly all these 
plateau people are beggars, when the water for 
their very existence must be drawn from the 
locomotive tanks each day as the train passes ? 
Far across the treeless plain they see the smoke 
of the locomotive, and from every adobe hut and 



The San Juan Valley. 13 

straw- thatched jackal swarm the eager-eyed 
women, carrying the empty five-gallon cans of 
the Standard Oil Company, or their smaller ollas 
of burnt earthenware. 

To supply that horde would be to disable the 
train, so the fireman fills a number and again 
mounts his engine amid the silent looks of 
anguish from the disappointed faces that plead 
more eloquently than words. Yet there are 
whole townships of this desert, fenced in with 
stone walls, and upon these haciendas the 
rancheros grow rich off their herds at the ex- 
pense of the poor peons, and the source of their 
wealth is the prickly pear. 

The thick, fleshy leaf is both food and water 
to the starving cattle. Where herds are small, 
the herder, with a huge knife or machete, cuts 
the cruel thorns from the leaves or singes them 
in a great bonfire; but on the vast estates the 
cattle must, from necessity, get their food with- 
out help. It may be curious to know how these 
leaves can furnish water in a country where it 
rarely rains. The reason is, the skin is so tough 
it does not lose any water by evaporation, and 
it is thus able to carry water a year or more 
without additional rain. This cactus grows to 
the height of fifteen feet, with innumerable 
branches armed with needles nearly as long as 
your finger, and it bears bunches of fruit about 
the size and shape of lemons, called tunas. 
This is the staff of life for the poor people on 
the plains, and without it, existence on the 
plateau, for man or beast would be impossible. 

But this country was not always a desert. 
Before the coming of the Spaniards it was 
clothed in verdure, but "it was not like the 



14 Land Without Chimneys. 

plains of Old Castile," and so the reckless gold- 
hunter turned the beautiful plateau into a 
Sahara, in which the silver mines now pay from 
eleven to sixteen dollars a cord for wood, brought 
on the backs of diminutive burros, and five dol- 
lars and seventy-five cents for a hundred and 
fifty pounds of corn. 

It is purely a lack of thrift that no effort is 
now made to restore the land to its original in- 
heritance. The eucalyptus tree of California 
has been tried in many places and thrives well, 
and with proper protection would soon grow a 
forest. The present wood supply is the mes- 
quite, which never grows taller than a peach 
tree, and the average size stick of wood it fur- 
nishes is but little larger than a beer bottle. 
Yet, with all its scarcity, the locomotives use 
it, because coal from the United States costs 
twenty-one dollars a ton. This wood is packed 
on the backs of dozens of little burros, and is 
carried as far as a dozen miles for delivery. 

This is a land without chimneys, for two 
reasons: The climate is not cold enough to re- 
quire fires, and if it was, the poor people would 
never be able to purchase wood. The little 
cooking that is done, is accomplished by little 
charcoal fires in braziers. 

If all this country was a plateau, then my 
tale would not be told, but there can be no 
mountains without valleys, and it is these val- 
leys that make Mexico one of the most delight- 
ful spots in this country. In the lovely valley 
of the noisy little San Juan River, rests the 
beautiful city of Monterey — "King Mountain." 

Situated at the foot of the Sierra Madres, 
surrounded by cloud-oovered peaks, there seems 



The San Juan Valley. 15 

to be not enough room for its seventy-five 
thousand inhabitants, as it first bursts upon the 
vision through the towering masts of Yucca 
palms. It is wedged between "La Silla," Sad- 
dle Mountain, and "Las Mitras," the Bishop's 
Mitre ; but this is only the first trick which this 
clear and illusive atmosphere plays upon the 
traveler from the lowlands. 

The perspective seems unduly fore-shortened, 
and mountain peaks which are really twenty-five 
miles away, appear to be within an hour's walk. 
After your law of optics has been restored, you 
discover that no prettier spot could have been 
chosen for a city than that for Monterey. 

Founded three hundred and thirty-five years 
ago, upon an elevation 1700 feet above the sea, 
the seasons are so nearly alike that December is 
as pleasant as May. 

In the western part of the city are the homes 
of the wealthy; beautiful houses in shaded 
gardens where tropical birds and flowers have 
their home, and where spraying fountains and 
living streams of water remind one of the tales 
of fairy-land. Just beyond these homes is the 
Bishop's Palace, the last fortification to succumb 
to the American army of invasion when the 
city was taken. Around the palace are many 
cannon, some half -buried beneath the soil, and 
one with the unbelched shot still imbedded in 
its throat where, for fifty years it has lain in 
mute testimony of that unequal struggle which 
General Grant called " The most unholy war in 
all history." 

Across the valley, three miles as the crow flies, 
are the famous hot springs of Topo Chico, at the 
base of a mountain of black marble, which, in 



16 Land Without Chimneys. 

building material, shows a beautiful stripe of 
alabastine whiteness. 

It was here the daughter of Montezuma and 
the elite of the Valley of Mexico came to bathe 
and chase dull care away, after the whirl of the 
court in the capital city of Tenochtitlan, long 
before the coming of the white man. 

At a temperature of 106° F. the water bursts 
forth in a heroic stream that bears testimony of 
the intense fires that hurl it forth. 

This reminds us that there is hardly a city 
in Mexico that has not its hot water baths, and 
it need not excite surprise, when three of the 
loftiest volcanoes in the world stand guard over 
the valley ; Orizaba in the east and Popocatapetl 
and Ixtacihuatl in the south, the highest stand- 
ing 17,782 feet above the sea. 

The water of Topo Chico, after serving the 
baths, is carried through the valley in irrigating 
ditches. Leaving the horse-cars which brought 
us from the city, we are enticed across the 
beautiful meadows to a grove of palms and 
tropical flowers, and find ourselves at the lofty 
walls of an enclosure which at first gives the 
impression of a penitentiary, but which you 
afterwards learn is a " Campo Santo," or ceme- 
tery. 

We walk around the forbidding walls until we 
come to a massive iron gate, and through its 
opening we see a forest of wooden crosses which 
tell their own tale, but the sexton will tell 
another. 

14 A relic of by-gone days was he, 

And his hair was white as the foaming- sea." 

He had dug a row of twenty-four graves, 
twenty-three of which were open, but the other 



The San Juan Valley. 17 

was filled to the brim with bones and 
scraps of clothing taken from the others. 
A peep into these revealed cross-sections 
of leg-bones here, two ribs and a hand there, 
with a jawbone or a vertebra lying in the bottom. 
The sexton explained that a person may rest in 
peace for the period of five years, and if, after 
that time his relatives do not pay a tax on his 
grave, his resurrection day will come to make 
room for newer tenants and better renters. 

And so on for a hundred years or more they 
will begin at the gate and dig graves and collect 
taxes until they reach the rear wall, and then 
start over. If everybody paid, the yard would 
remain intact and the sexton would have to 
start a new farm; but with the average Mexican, 
the cost of remaining alive is a far more serious 
question than remaining dead for an orthodox 
resurrection. 

He much prefers using his spare cash during 
those five years in buying masses from the priest 
to get the soul of his late departed out of Pur- 
gatory, and if he succeeds in that, the bones 
may go; so every five years he is prepared to 
see his friend's lodging aired and let to new 
lodgers. The wealthy rent tombs which are 
built in the outer wall, and here they can peep 
through the glass doors and see the dust of their 
fathers sifting down upon the ashes of their 
grandfathers to the third and fourth generation. 
The sexton was not very careful in removing 
his renters, and would leave a leg in No. 7 and 
carry the other remains to 24. I asked him if 
that would not complicate matters a little in the 
final resurrection . He assured me that Purgatory 
was the place to right such small matters, and 



18 Land Without Chimneys. 

if the priest was paid enough he would get them 
all together. That reminds me of a wealthy 
man who died, and the priest, with an eye to 
business, called upon the son of the late departed, 
and impressed upon him the urgency of paying 
for enough masses to take his father's soul from 
Purgatory. The son asked how much would do 
it. The priest, after a careful calculation said: 
" He was a pretty hard case and no less than 
five hundred dollars will move him," and the 
son paid the money. 

After a while they met again. " And how is 
my father getting along? ' ' asked the son. ' ' You 
see," said the priest, "your father was in the 
middle of Purgatory and I had to move him a 
long way, but I have him towards the outer edge 
now, and I think two hundred dollars more will 
pass him out." The money was paid without 
protest, and this so encouraged the priest that 
he resolved to make one more deal. 

"And how is my father now?" was asked 
when they met again. "Well, I have him right 
at the edge of Purgatory with one foot over the 
line, and I think another fifty dollars will pass 
him into heaven." 

"0 no ! " said the son . ' ' You don't know my 
father. If he has one foot in heaven, St. Peter 
and all Purgatory can't keep him out and so I 
will save this fifty dollars." 

As the sexton and I talked, a funeral proces- 
sion entered the gate, consisting of two men and 
two women of the poorer class. On the head of 
one man was a dead child stretched upon a 
board. The other came to the sexton for in- 
structions. He pointed them to a row of 
thirteen small graves, dug about two feet deep 



The San Juan Valley. 19 

and two of them were filled with the bones from 
the others. 

The child was taken from the board and 
chucked in, but was found to be several inches 
too long for the grave, so its head was bent up 
until the pall-bearer could gouge out enough 
dirt to admit the body straight, and then enough 
dirt and bones were raked in to cover it a foot and 
a half. Meanwhile, the women sat upon neigh- 
boring graves, chatting and smoking cigarettes 
until the grave was filled. Thirteen minutes 
after they had entered they were gone, leaving 
the sexton and myself alone with the dead. 
Within ten minutes another procession en- 
tered, preceded by a company of priests with 
lighted candles, followed by a hearse with a velvet 
covered coffin. Behind the hearse walked a 
procession of young men with lighted candles, 
and then I knew a man was dead, for no women 
attend the funerals of men. 

On entering, the body was taken from the 
coffin and buried, and the coffin returned to the 
undertaker. Wood is too scarce in Mexico to 
buy coffins when a rented one will do as well, 
and besides, it would give the sexton too much 
trouble in his impromptu resurrections if he had 
to dig through hard wood boards. 

If you should ask these people why they dig 
over and over a few acres of enclosed ground 
when just outside there are leagues and leagues 
of ground that will not grow anything else but 
a good crop of graves, they would shrug their 
shoulders and say: " Quien saheV — who knows — 
with that untranslatable gesture which forbids 
other question. Should you ask the tax col- 
lector, he might look over his balance-sheet and 



20 Land Without Chimneys. 

give you an answer about how much it takes to 
run the government. 

Nothing better illustrates the stature of these 
people than the death of an American. He was 
a conductor, and the railroad employees deter- 
mined to give him an orthodox Christian burial, 
but no coffin could be found long enough, so he 
was put into one with both ends knocked out. 
Then came the inspection, and official announce- 
ment and permit, and enough red tape to consume 
two whole days and all the patience of the 
American colony, and involved enough writing 
to have chartered the city. 

All cemeteries are reached by mule car ; and 
for those who cannot afford a hearse, a funeral 
car and as many empties as are needed, are 
always to be had. The funeral car is painted 
black or white, with a raised dais to support 
the coffin, and in a sweeping gallop the cortege 
is soon at the cemetery gates on schedule time. 

All head-boards and grave-stones are embel- 
lished with the ominous black letters R. I. P. 
They tell me that is Latin for "May he rest in 
peace;" but I think they ought to add, "For 
five years." 

The cathedral in all Mexican cities is the one 
place of attraction. The one here was used as 
a powder magazine during the Mexican war, 
and the walls still bear the grim ear-marks of 
cannon balls. 

The finest church here is Nuesta Senora del 
Roble, which is old, but seems never to be finished, 
and thereby hangs a tale. 

No church property is taxable here until it is 
finished, so the astute priests rarely finish 
one. There are churches here whose foundations 



The San Juan Valley. 21 

were laid three hundred years ago, and as you 
stand in the grand nave, bits of stone falling 
around you will be the only evidence of the 
workmen two hundred feet above. 

The stone used is almost as porous and as 
light as chalk, and responds readily to the chisel 
for ornamentation, but hardens on exposure. 
These building blocks are nearly always two 
feet square, and are built into the wall rough, 
and with scaffolding built around; the stone- 
mason, with mallet and chisel, will work for 
years, creating an ornamentation that is a joy 
and beauty forever. Patience here is a cardinal 
virtue, and time has no value whatever, and to 
their credit, be it said, that these decoraters are 
artists, and their work is beautiful. A man will 
begin work on a hundred year job with as much 
sang-froid as though it was to last a month. 

A workman will take an intricate pattern of 
wall-paper, and, with a paint-pot and brush, 
will spread that design over ten thousand square 
yards of surface, and at a distance of ten feet 
you cannot detect his work from genuine wall- 
paper. The perspective is so deceptive in ^one 
church in Monterey, that you almost run into 
the rear wall before you are aware that the long 
aisle is a painted one. You must stand or kneel 
in the churches, as no seats are provided. One 
church in Puebla is the only exception. Most 
of the churches are bedizened with cheap gew- 
gaws and tinsel, which gives you an impression 
of a child's playhouse. 

The church of San Francisco is the oldest in 
town, and its bells were cast in Spain. 

A large painting in there which is meant for 
the piece de resistance, represents Christ with a 



22 Land Without Chimneys. 

Spanish fan in his hand, and the Madonna 
draped in a Spanish cloak of the vintage of 1520. 
Another represents the Shepherds with violins 
in their hands looking at the Babe in the manger. 
It all reminds me of February 22, in New 
York, when national proclivities will rise against 
time and circumstances, and George Washing- 
ton will blaze with all his calm dignity from 
the Teuton's shop window with a huge glass of 
lager in his hand, and the citizen from County 
Cork flashes him forth from his aldermanic 
window with an extra width to his supermax- 
illary, while Hop Long Quick displays him with 
his weekly washee washee, sporting a three foot 
queue. 

I suppose all this proves that we think a lot 
more of ourselves than we do of others, and of 
our nationality: "My country, may she ever be 
right, but right or wrong, my country." 

I suppose local color is everything to the am- 
bitious artist, and in making the rounds of the 
different churches, the amount of dripping gore 
you encounter in the transit from the San- 
hedrin to Calvary is appalling. Were you to 
meet the dramatis persona' in the flesh, and 
away from their settings, you would be in doubt 
as to whether they were just from the foot-ball 
game, or a delegation from Darktown Alley 
"After de Ball." Beyond the city and near 
the foothills is the modest little chapel of 
Guadalupe. 

Around it is a grove of maguey plants with 
their long, fleshy leaves, just as inviting to the 
jack-knife of the Mexican boy as a white beech 
tree was to you when you werx? loitering around 
the country church. Nor were these boys less 



The San Juan Valley. 23 

boys than others, for all over these telltale leaves 
are inscriptions, some cut ' ' When you and I 
were boys, Tom, just twenty years ago." Nor 
were all these inscriptions outbursts of piety 
and consecration to the church. Some still 
told the old, old story, that the lovely Ramona 
was La alma de mi vidi, mi dulce corizon, 
the soul of his life and his sweetheart forever. 

I sincerely hope Ramona got the letter and 
rewarded the young man for his splendid sculp- 
turing, but I doubt if he * ' sculped ' ' all the 
things I read. 

Some were avowals to the service of the Vir- 
gin, and I know of no place better calculated to 
inspire such thoughts of worship than the little 
chapel of Guadalupe. 

Beyond the chapel was a young man quarry- 
ing stone, and in his idle hours he had chiseled 
out a small miniature chapel, about three feet 
long and similar in design to Guadalupe. Per- 
haps he was the one who wrote the pious in- 
scription, but he fooked just about old enough 
to have boiled over with that effervescence about 
Ramona. 

While he was at work, I slyly investigated 
his means of saving grace. Within the little 
chapel were candles and tinsels of gold leaf and 
silver, and symbols made of pewter and tin, and 
bits of broken crockery and other childish play- 
things, while around it were planted a row of 
resurrection plants. 

This botanical wonder, Selaginella lepido- 
2Jhylla, grows upon the bare rocks, and may be 
kept a dozen year^ in a trunk, but when placed 
in a saucer of water, immediately changes its 
grey color for green, and unfolds its fronds like 



24 Land Without Chimneys. 

a thing of life. When taken from the water it 
closes up like a chestnut-burr, and continues in 
its dormant state till water is given it, when it 
responds every time. This young man having 
all this paraphernalia as a means of worship 
may be strange, but what about the church from 
which he drew his pattern ? 

What the lower classes here do not know 
about the bible would fill a book. 

The city of Monterey is supplied with water 
from a famous spring in the heart of the city, 
which also gives birth to the Santa Lucia, which 
is crossed by numerous bridges, and is the pub- 
lic bath-house and laundry. A whole company 
of soldiers will march from the barracks down 
the principal street, and the first bridge they 
reach, down they go into the water, and every 
man will take off his shirt, wade in and begin 
his laundering. In all likelihood, they will find 
as many women already in the water enjoying a 
bath, and they will all sit in the sun and smoke 
cigarettes together while their clothes dry. 

The little proprieties which most people attach 
to a bath do not seem to trouble these innocent 
people, especially when an orthodox bath-house 
charges a quarter of a dollar for what the city 
gives free gratis for nothing. If cleanliness is 
next to godliness, these people must be away up 
in the line of promotion, for from sunrise to 
sunset, I have seen every rod of this canal a 
moving panorama of black-haired swimmers, 
men, women and children, while the banks were 
white with drying laundry. 

The painter who first made that picture about 
the mermaids sitting upon a rock and combing 
their raven locks, must have been standing on a 



The San Juan Valley. 25 

bridge here and got his idea from the Mexican 
liouris trying -to dry their hair before they— 
well whUe waiting for their clothes to get dry. 
The puento Purisiina is the bridge where a 
wing of the Mexican army withstood Gen 
Trior's diyision. The legend says that the 
L a a y ge of the Virgin hovered oyer the Mexican 
army and enabled it to do wonders and that 
tC re enacted the old story of Thermopylae. 
Below the old bridge is a perpetual laundry. A 
Mexican laundry if a study in white and wnen 
ycXve mastered the details, it differs not one 
jot or tittle from all the other laundries m the 

^LikeMahomet's mountain, the Mexican laun- 
dress always carries her clothes to the water 
and rests upon her knees hy the hrmk Sbe 
casts a garment into the stream until it is wet, 
and the! wads it upon a flat stone and soaps it 
until it is a mass of foam. She .then^ ■*£ 
a wooden tray, such as we use m our kitchen, 
Ld rubs all the soap out of it and immediately 
empties the water and repeats the Process 

If she dips a piece a dozen times, she soaps it 
jus as often, and empties the soapsuds after 
lach rubbing, and neyer, never uses the soap- 
suds a second time. 

This is very hard on a bar of soap, but the 
linen is returned to you as white as snow 

There are many Americans in Monterey and 
they are trying' very hard to unplan ; their 
American customs upon the country, one of 
which is the color line in public places. 

All the streets are paved with smooth, round 
cobble stones from the mountain gorges. They 
are about the size and shape of a butter-dish, 



26 Land Without Chimneys. 

and they make just about as smooth a pavement 
as so many acres of cannon balls would make, 
buried half way in cement, and meeting about 
as closely as round objects usually meet. 

I can think of no American equivalent, except 
a corduroy log bridge, or driving across the 
railroad tracks in a switch-yard. 

The gutter is always in the middle of the 
street, which is a foot or more lower than the 
rest. An American has gained a concession to 
lay one street with Texas vitrified brick, and 
let us hope it is a fore-runner of others. But, 
come to think of it, it might work a hardship 
to a time-honored custom ; an innovation to some 
might prove an iconoclast to the church. 

It has long been a custom during Passion 
week and other fiestas, for the priests to prescribe 
a penance for those who confessed to a sin in 
thought or word or deed either in the past, 
present or future tense; and one of the favorite 
punishments is to require a number of maidens 
to walk down a street leading to a church, and 
return, crawling upon their bare knees to the 
church to be absolved. As they would leave a 
trail of blood over the cruel stones, some agonized 
lover would cast his zerape before his beloved 
and beseech her to let him lead it in front of 
her to the church and spare the laceration \ but 
poor ignorant creatures, they have been taught 
that this is the only way to have their sins 
forgiven. 

I notice I never see men in these pilgrimages, 
and it must prove that the men have more hard 
sense than the women, or else the priests have 
their own reasons for appointing women only. 

Now what would a penance amount to on a 



The San Juan Valley. 27 

San Antonio brick pavement ? Just a picnic, 
no more. It takes a regulation Monterey pave- 
ment to draw blood in the first round. I like 
the Texas innovation, but I shall vote to keep 
one of these threshing-machine streets for the 
church and auld lang syne. 

In Monterey are a number of smelting works, 
where the lead and silver ore is reduced to pigs, 
and here we see the applied difference in wages. 
The hardest work in the smelter is to weigh 
in and deliver to the furnace a thousand pounds 
of ore every fifteen minutes, and this is not 
unskilled labor either. The man has a two- 
wheeled cart into which he must weigh in 600 
pounds of ore, and 400 pounds of coke and flux 
material. Those ores are perhaps fifty yards 
away at the dump, and if the ore is very refrac- 
tory, he must mix four or five grades in different 
proportions. His cart must be always on scales 
as he goes from one pile to the other, and he 
must make four trips an hour, and for this he 
cannot possibly make over a dollar a day, and 
the regulation wages for even the hardest work 
is 67| cents for a maximum, if he is able to 
make eight full hours. 

I saw an Indian boy who had become so ex- 
pert, he could load his cart with three or four 
different ores and not miss the amount by more 
than ten pounds when weighed. 

The engines never stop night nor day, except 
to collect the rich gold dust which collects in 
the flues. It is a very dangerous, suffocating 
job, which a white man always gets ten dollars 
for, and a Mexican five reals, or 67£ cents. 

Two railroads pass Monterey. The Mexican 
Central to Tampico on the Gulf, and the Mexi- 



28 



Land Without Chimneys. 



can National to the City ; and on the latter we 
now leave for Saltillo and the battle-field of Buena 
Vista. 




CHAPTER II. 

SALTILLO AND THE PLATEAU. 

FROM Monterey to Saltillo is sixty-seven 
miles as the crow flies, 5,300 feet in ele- 
vation as the barometer creeps, and fifty 
rise to the mile as the train runs. Up, up we 
go with two powerful engines to the train, and 
the ever-present query, "If the train should 
break in two, where would I land ? " 

This is no idle question either, and to reduce 
possibilities, the Pullmans follow the baggage, 
the first-class cars next, and the second and 
third-class last. This is very necessary in 
steep grades and sharp curves, where the heavy 
Pullmans with their momentum would always 
endeavor to strike off segments and chords 
across the arcs. 

Up we go between mountains bare of vegeta- 
tion, which enables you to see them in their 
naked grandeur and sublimity. You very soon 
conclude that the train is on the trail of the 
little river, and trying to track it out of the 
canon, and you also discover that it was impos- 
sible to have built the road over any other route 
than the bed of the noisy, fretful little San 
Juan. We pass through the canon with the lit- 
tle stream first on one side and then on the 
other, clinging to the side of the mountain by a 



30 Land Without Chimneys. 

path that hardly eaves the train from destruc- 
tion by the overhanging rocks, but ever upward. 
Indeed, railroad men say that when a car breaks 
loose from the yard in Saltillo, it runs all the 
way back to Monterey. I don't believe it. It 
might come part of the way, but I think before 
it got half way down that grade, it would leave 
the track and make the rest of the journey in 
mid-air, and in considerable less than a mile a 
minute, too. 

On the way up we pass the little peubla of 
Garcia, where a peak of the mountain has an 
opening through it, as though some Titanic 
cannon-ball had crashed its way through there, 
showing the sunlight on the other side. As we 
pass, all good Catholics take off their hats and 
cross themselves. Far up the peaks, tiny spirals of 
smoke show where the charcoal burners have 
found some isolated shrubs and are reducing 
them to merchantable form. In the cleft of the 
rocks are also to be seen the tuna-bearing cac- 
ti, which the half-clad Indian women are 
gathering for food. At last the grade is sur- 
mounted and we reach Saltillo, the capital of 
the State of Coahuila to which once also was at- 
tached the State of Texas. 

One of the causes of the Texas revolution 
was that the Texans had to go to Saltillo, fully 
a thousand miles from Red River, to attend to 
their legal business. They asked for a separate 
state, and at the head of the Texas army they 
kindly persuaded Santa Anna to grant it. There 
is great persuasive power in a gun. 

The train passes through a long street, lined 
on both sides with gardens of peaches and ap- 
ples and oranges and bananas and figs. The 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 81 

altitude is a mile above sea-level, so that the 
heat of summer is never known, and one must 
sleep under blankets, even in July and August. 
It is a favorite summer resort for those who 
want a climate with no changes whatever. The 
city has a population of 20,000, but no horse- 
cars, so you take your foot in your hand and go 
off to see the town. There is but little to see, 
but of course there is the Grand Plaza, all 
Mexican cities have that, and of course the 
Cathedral faces the Plaza, there is no exception 
to that rule. The town is 300 years old, but 
the Cathedral was not begun till 1745, and the 
main body was completed in 1800. 

The towers were begun in 1873, and may con- 
tinue a hundred years longer. In keeping with 
the custom of the country, the churches must 
be as fine as time and money can make them, 
and the people give both, freely. The Alameda 
is as beautiful and as restful as one could wish, 
with fountains and flowers, and birds and trees 
to drive dull care away. I was honestly trying 
to do this when a school dismissed near by, and 
I called several of the " Kids " by to let me look 
at their text books, which consisted of a Cate- 
chism of the Catholic faith, and an Arithmetic. 
There must have been nearly a dozen boys 
around me, when all of a sudden they scattered 
like quails before a hawk, as a watchful police- 
man headed for us. 

I suppose he thought the boys were about to 
kidnap me and came to my rescue, but he ex- 
plained that it was a place of rest and pleasure 
and "Kids" were not allowed to flock there. 
I flocked by myself for a half hour, and the 
young ladies' school dismissed and they all 



32 Land Without Chimneys. 

passed, dressed in black, and with bare heads 
generally, but several had lace mantillas. If 
ever I wanted to examine text-books, I thought 
now was the time, but to save my life I could 
not muster courage to ask that policeman if it 
was any harm for me to flock anywhere else but 
on that park bench, and while I hesitated the 
dream vanished — and so did I. I thought it 
was time to go see Alta Mira, the baths of San 
Lorenzo. 

Beyond the city limits is a dismantled old 
fort, a relic of French occupation. It was a 
very rude affair of sun-dried bricks, and is now 
occupied by a hermit and a vicious dog who de- 
manded backsheesh. The who refers to both 
man and beast, for, after looking at the persua- 
sive face and teeth of that dog, you quite 
willingly pass over the coppers to the old man. 
I have never heard of the couple using force on 
travelers, but the argumentative look on that 
dog's face showed that they understood each 
other, and especially since the isolation of the 
fort encourages the presumption. 

Ten miles from Saltillo is the battle-field of 
Buena Vista, where General Taylor, after a two 
days' fight, defeated the Mexicans. After the 
battle the Mexican women went among the 
wounded, ministering to the American as well 
as to the Mexican soldiers. 

Whittier has made their name immortal in his 
beautiful poem : 

" THE ANGELS OF BUENA VISTA." 

which closes with the following lines : 

"Sink, () Night, among thy mountains, hi thy 
cool, gray shadows fall ; 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 33 

Dying brothers, fighting demons, drop thy curtain 

over all ! 
Through the thickening winter twilight, wide apart 

the battle rolled, 
In its sheath the sabre rested, and the cannon's 

lips grew cold. 

" But the noble Mexic women still their holy task 

pursued, 
Through that long, dark night of sorrow, worn and 

faint and lacking food, 
Over weak and suffering brothers, with a tender 

care they hung, 
And the dying foeman blessed them in a strange 

and Northern tongue. 

" Not wholly lost, O Father! is this evil world of 

ours ; 
Upward, through its blood and ashes, spring afresh 

the Eden flowers ; 
From its smoking hell of battle, Love and Pity send 

their prayer, 
And still thy white-winged angels hover dimly in 

our air! " 

Near the old French fort is a narrow stream 
of water, precious as all water is on the plateau. 
Through irrigating ditches it winds around the 
hill to the valley, through a winding street, among 
adobe houses, serving each as it passes, as a 
laundry, fountain or bath-house. The people 
on the lower course did not seem to care how 
the water had been treated before it reached 
them, but they believe in the old saw : "Where 
ignorance is bliss," etc. 

Along the hard, sunbaked street we pass and 
look in upon more squalor than was ever dreamed 
of in a city. The hovels are built of sun-dried 
brick, with no windows nor chimneys for venti- 
lation. Within is neither floor nor table nor 
chair nor bed nor any piece of furniture. The 



84 Land Without Chimneys. 

women and children and dogs and men all herd 
together on the bare floor, or at most on straw 
mats. Neither shoes nor stockings find a place 
here. The men wear a presentable suit of white 
cotton or coarse linen, and are bare-footed, or 
wear a pair of leather sandals on their feet. 
These are simply pieces of sole leather under 
the bottom, held on by thongs passed between 
the toes to the ankle. Every man is his own 
shoemaker. The women often wear only a 
chemisette and neither shoes nor stockings, and 
when they do wear shoes, they wear no stock- 
ings. Privacy is absolutely unknown, in this 
or any other Mexican city, except in the heart 
of the city or among foreigners, and it requires 
the utmost watchfulness on the part of the police 
to keep a semblance of public decency, even in 
the city of Mexico ; and even then, the Indians 
are tacitly exempt from punishment for infrac- 
tions. It must not be understood that this as- 
sertion includes everybody, but you must 
remember that five-sixths of the population is 
classed as low caste or peons, and strong enough 
numerically to imprint their influence upon 
every city in the country. Through almost 
every city flows a stream of water, and in this 
hundreds of men and women bathe promis- 
cuously. Some cities require some garment to be 
worn, but while changing clothes and putting 
on the bathing suit, they are protected only by 
the blue sky and the Republic of Mexico. 

These hovels are the centers of a great manu- 
facturing industry; within, the women are 
pounding the fibre from the thick leaves of the 
aloe or maguey, and making brushes, mats, 
hammocks, rope and twine. The fibre is very 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 35 

much like the unraveled strands of our sea- 
grass rope, and so strong that ordinary wrap- 
ping cord must be cut with a knife. The 
weaving apparatus is crude in the extreme. A 
post with a windlass and three wooden arms 
stands in the ground, and a boy turns the wind- 
lass. A man walks backwards with a basket of 
fibre hanging from his neck. Having fastened 
a thread to each of the arms of the crank, he slow- 
ly feeds each lengthening strand as it twists 
around the windlass. In ten minutes he can 
twist a thread fifty feet long. The threads are 
woven any desirable size, the most common being 
such as is used in making hammocks. As the 
husband prepares the thread, the wife weaves the 
mats or hammocks, and goes off to the market to 
sell. Within such hovels, all the manufacturing 
of Mexico is carried on, with no machinery any- 
where. Of course, without wood, steam is 
impossible, and water power there is none. 

Saltillo is famed for one thing above all 
others, and that is the beauty of its zerapes. 
A zerape is a cross between a cloak, a blanket, 
a shawl and a mat, because it is used for all 
these. It is the one garment a Mexican prizes 
next to his hat, the sine qua non of his attire. 
The zerape is a hand-woven blanket, with 
figures and colors that would make Pharaoh's 
adopted son turn green with envy. They are 
woven and worn all over Mexico, but those made 
in Saltillo are a thing of beauty and a joy for- 
ever, to the happy possessor. When the Mexi- 
can starts out in the morning, his zerape is 
folded across his shoulder with the fringed ends 
nearly touching the ground. If he is hunting 
work, or going to work, or walking for pleasure, 



36 Land Without Chimneys. 

or holding up the sunny side of a street corner 
to keep it from falling down, the zerape is al- 
ways there. If he sits down, he either sits upon 
that zerape or fondly folds it across his lap. 
When night comes, if he has a home, he spreads 
that zerape on the dirt floor for his bed. If he 
has no home, a nice soft corner of the stone 
pavement is carpeted with his zerape. When 
morning comes, he goes through the same pro- 
gramme. Many slit a hole through the center 
and stick their heads through. Those who can- 
not buy, take am old salt sack and rip it up, and 
presto ! a zerape. In the Torrid Zone on the 
coast, when the hot sun melts the asphalt pave- 
ments, an Indian may be seen comfortably smok- 
ing his cigarette, his head covered with a woolen 
sombrero weighted down with silver ornaments, 
and several yards of woolen zerape covering his 
reeking body. 

Ephraim is wedded to his idols. If the men 
are wedded to the zerape, the women are equally 
inseparable from the rebosa. The rebosa is a 
shawl, nothing more — that is from appearance, 
but with the Mexican women and girls, it is 
second self. The common gray, cotton article 
is called a rebosa, the finer black article is a 
tapalo, while the lace fabrication is a mantilla y 
but it is of the rebosa that we now speak. Hats 
nor bonnets are ever worn by the women at any 
time or place, the rebosa is used instead. It is 
drawn across the brow until the ends hang down 
below the waist, then one end is thrown across 
the opposite shoulder, protecting the neck and 
making a drapery both picturesque and pleas- 
ing. Sometimes she wears it around her 
shoulders as a shawl. If she has a bab} r , she 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 37 

lets the slack out in the back, loops the young- 
ster in it and takes a half hitch with the ends 
in front. It is an every day sight to see cara- 
vans of women come to town with large baskets 
of fruit on their heads, and the blackeyed 
youngsters tied in the rebosa and peeping over 
the mother's shoulder. When the mothers sit 
by the roadside to rest the " Kids " are not un- 
wrapped, but they usually keep the peace until 
released. 

The rebosa is the first garment a girl learns 
to wear, and I might add, until she is quite 
large it is often the only one. The most re- 
markable thing about it is, they never cease 
wearing them. Peep into these hovels, and 
every woman and girl child will be sitting list- 
lessly on the stone floor, or busily at work with 
head and ears tightly wrapped up, their spark- 
ling eyes and pleasant faces alone showing. But 
draw a camera on them, presto ! every face is 
instantly covered. In walking, one or both 
hands is always engaged in holding the folds 
under the chin, as no shawl pins are used. The 
girl of fashion is a combination of painted face, 
India inked eyebrows and bella-donna eyes, but 
the ordinary middle class girls have rare beauty 
sometimes, and a series of faces would make 
" mighty interesting reading," but no camera 
that I have seen can get their faces, unless 
covered with a rebosa. 

The prevailing color of rebosas is as much a 
distinctive emblem of caste, as any rule in the 
social decalogue. No high caste woman would 
dare be seen with a gray rebosa, and though a 
low caste might be able to buy one of the more 
costly black ones, I have never seen one do so, 



38 Land Without Chimneys. 

and the observance of these social adjuncts is as 
unchanging as the laws of the Medes and 
Persians. 

Saltillo as seen from the rear is disappointing. 
Most towns are painted white, but here the 
dull, wearied-looking sun-baked adobe houses 
are not pleasing. We visit a high school for 
young ladies astd wonder that all this youthful 
beauty can bide this dull town, and that reminds 
me that there is not a mixed school in all 
Mexico, even the kindergartens being separate. 
You do not need to visit the primary schools, 
as you can hear all you wish a block away. 
The noise that first greets you will remind you 
of the last inning at the base-ball park when 
everybody is asking who killed the umpire. 
There may be three hundred children and each 
one is studying at the top of his voice, if voices 
ever have top and bottom, and the priests are 
stalking among them. The catechism is the 
first book placed in the hands of the child, and 
his duty to the church, the priest and the pope, 
are the first lines he ever learns. This statement 
will help make plain some other things I shall 
eay later about the religious status of the 
country. 

In the early gray of the July morning, with 
the chilling fog settling all around us, we draw 
our heavy wraps about us and leave with no re- 
grets Saltillo, * " The Stepping Stone . " We have 
indeed stepped upon the plateau, and for a hun- 
dred and fifty miles the track is as straight as a 
carpenter's rule. What a monotony ! Desert, 
yucca palnis, cactus, dust. Not a living thing 
but cactus. No birds, no insects, no rabbits, 
no snakes — nothing that breathes claims this 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 39 

for a home. The railroad authorities did not 
plan this road for the beauty of its landscape, 
but for the economy of building. Ten thousand 
feet above sea-level lies the back-bone of the 
Cordilleras, and the plain is as level as a floor. 

For twelve hundred miles a carriage can 
travel here without making a road, so while the 
journey is disappointing to the tourist, the rail- 
road company pats itself on the back for long- 
headedness. 

Away in the distance we see a tiny curl of 
white dust no larger than a man's hand, and 
reaching to heaven. That is the sign of the 
burro pack-team bearing their bundles of fag- 
ots for the hungry maw of the locomotive. 
Poor little donkeys, not weighing more than 
three hundred pounds, without bridle or saddle 
or harness or halter, and without food except 
as they can argue with the thorns and thistles 
by the wayside, follow, follow forever the nar- 
row trail to the wood-pile by the railroad track, 
drop their burden and return. 

Surely the earth is round to the donkey. When 
he was no larger than a kid, he followed his 
mother along the same trail until he got large 
enough to carry a pack-saddle himself. That 
wearied, discouraged look he has always had, 
even to the twentieth generation. It is a part 
of his inheritance. He never had any frisky 
colt days in a pasture, nor did he have to "be 
broke " to harness when he reached the state of 
Coahuila and donkey hood. In fact he was never 
born, but like Topsy "just growed up," a 
burden-bearing burro. From the Rio Grande to 
Yucatan, he has gridironed the country and 
impressed it with his stamp. He and his com- 



40 Land Without Chimneys. 

panions have trailed, Indian file, loaded to the 
guards with silver ore, until his sharp little feet 
cut the trail so deep that his burden was raked 
off by the banks. He then started a new trail 
by the side of that until his little legs are out 
of sight in the trails cut by his feet in the solid 
rock ; and then repeats, until you may count 
twenty or more little parallel gridiron paths for 
hundreds of miles. He has worn through solid 
rock in a dozen parallel paths, and only the 
final recorder in the burro paradise can tell how 
many weary journeys he had to make to write 
his name so well. 

Neither the trolley car nor the bicycle will 
ever make his shadow grow less; he is a part of 
the country, as indispensable as water itself. 
While the Indians load the tender with wood, 
I follow the fireman and brakeman into the 
chaparral. They have a pail of water, a wicker 
basket, and a long stick with a string lasso on the 
end, and are hunting tarantulas. Being some- 
thing of a naturalist myself, I was well acquainted 
with tarantulas, and I promptly told them 
I had not lost any tarantulas, and if they had 
nothing better to lose than tarantulas, they 
needed guardians. To those who have not a 
speaking acquaintance with his vitriolic majesty, 
I will say it is a huge hairy spider that will 
cover the bottom of a tea-cup, and when placed 
in a saucer is able to grasp the edge all round, 
so great is the spread of its claws. It is very 
vindictive and can leap up to a man's face 
when making close acquaintance. In Texas I 
have known its bite to kill a person in twelve 
hours. I saw one catch a chicken under the 
wing, and the chicken fell within one minute. 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 41 

However, I joined the hunters. We first looked 
for a hole in the ground, and as the hole 
denotes the size of the tarantula, only the larger 
ones were sought. When a hole about the cir- 
cumference of a half dollar was found, one 
man guarded that with the stick and basket, 
while the other sought the outlet, for they al- 
ways have two entrances to their homes. When 
it was found, the water was poured in, and out 
he came into the lasso placed over the other 
hole — and is caught dangling at the end of 
the stick. What is he good for ? To sell. The 
Mexican is the greatest gambler this side of 
Monte Carlo. Tomorrow is the fiesta of his 
patron saint, and he will celebrate. As every 
one chooses a saint to his liking, and 
churches and towns do likewise — there is 
scarcely a day in the calendar that is not some- 
body's saint day. Tomorrow he will "knock 
off " from work, go to the bull-ring and bet his 
money on the bull or the man, and whichever 
one gets killed, he is so much loser or winner. 
He goes to the cock-pit and stakes again, and a 
bird soon spears another through with his gaff ; 
but a tarantula fight ! Bravo ! that is a sport 
royal. In the bull-ring, the bull sometimes 
gets wounded and bellows to be allowed to go 
home to his mother. In the cock-pit, a bird 
gets a gaff pinned through his upper works and 
decides to settle the fight by arbitration; but a 
tarantula, Caramba ! they simply eat each other 
up. The only way you can lose money is that 
the other fellow's cannibal will eat yours first. 

The engineer blows his whistle and calls us in, 
and we trail again through the white dust to 
Catorce, a hundred and fifty miles as the crow 



42 Land Without Chimneys. 

flies, only no crow ever flies over this Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Catorce means fourteen, as the 
mines were discovered by a band of brigands 
numbering fourteen. You get off at the station 
and see nothing but a station and three or four 
pack trains of burros that have just brought in 
a load of silver. Folio w their gridiron trail, 
and eight miles further you come to Catorce, a 
city of from ten to twenty thousand people, 
according to the output of silver, and these 
people have never heard the rumble of wheels. 
Ore was first found here in 1790, and for thirty 
years the silver output was over three million 
dollars yearly. 

There are hundreds of these mines here, and 
the drainage tunnel of the San Augustin mine 
runs into the mountain more than a mile and a 
half and cost a million and a half dollars. Up, 
up you climb the rocky sides of the mountain, 
but there is no other way to reach Catorce, and 
when there, you are in one of the richest spots 
on earth, where the ore often assays $15,000 to 
the ton. The streets run forty-five degrees one 
way, and I suppose they ought to run the same 
coming back, but if you let go your hold on the 
street corners, you would fall out of town so 
fast you could not measure the angle. The only 
level place in town of course has a plaza and a 
very fine cathedral. I have made a similar 
statement several times, which needs no repeti- 
tion. Whenever you enter a Mexican town you 
will always find "A very fine plaza and a very 
fine cathedral." That copyright phrase will 
fit anywhere, with sometimes a modification of 
very and a change of church for cathedral. 

Catorce is the last town in the temperate zone. 



Saltillo and the Plateau. 43 

A few miles beyond, standing solitary upon the 
desert like Lot's wife in the geography, is a 
pyramid erected by the railroad company. It 
marks the exact line of the Tropic of Cancer. On 
the north the legend reads: — 

TROPICO DE CANCER. 

ZONA TEMPLADA. 

on the south, 

TROPICO DE CANCER. 

ZONA TORRIDA. 

Out of respect to your early teaching in geog- 
raphy you ought to perspire and be exceeding 
warm in the Torrid Zone, and see all kinds of 
gay-plumaged birds and jungles of flowers, but 
the hammer of the iconoclast has shattered one 
of your long cherished dreams. 

The sun was shining upon a landscape over 
which clouds never hover. You pull your over- 
coat around you on this cold July day, and look 
through your closed windows for the other 
canard — the landscape. The landscape is all 
there according to the book, and for that you are 
thankful, but how changed! As. far as the eye 
can reach and ten times farther are beautiful 
rock-colored rocks, and dust-colored dust and 
thorny thorns and dust-hidden sky. Where 
are the flowers? Never were any. And the birds? 
Never wiH b© any. Not a blade of grass nor a 
chirp of insect. For forty miles around, or as 
far as the eye can reach is the dry, parched 
dust, and the chaparral, sere and yellow. 

After a hundred and fifty miles of desert, how 
welcome is the oasis! Bocas is its name, and 
the last stopping-place before we reach the 
great city of San Luis Potosi. 

Las Bocas is a fine hacienda and recalls old 



44 Land Without Chimneys. 

feudal times along the Rhine. Here is a fine 
old castle with its walled enclosure, its beauti- 
ful arched bridge and its herds and flocks and 
gardens and retinue. By the railroad track is 
a distillery for making liquid lava from the aloe 
or maguey plant, which is sold under the name 
of mescal for the purpose of making men drunk. 
Those who know say it will eat the lining out 
of a lead-pipe stomach. I saw a case of delirium 
tremens which it is guaranteed to give, and I 
can only liken it to a caged hyena after Lent. 

Away in the distance is the snow-white trail 
of a stone wall, which winds its tortuous path 
many leagues away to encircle the hacienda de 
Las Bocas, while within its bounds and feeding 
upon the rocks and thorns are the thousands of 
cattle that maintain its opulence. How that 
kind of food can work such wonders is beyond 
my ken. When I was in school I learned that 
cattle have four stomachs. I think one would 
be quite sufficient for all the food a cow can 
get from a cactus bush, and a couple of mill- 
stones might be helpful in digesting the rocks. 
No one told me that the rocks were positively a 
part of the bill of fare, but I pointed to ten 
miles of rocks enclosed hy a wall and asked a 
man why they fenced in the rocks, and he said it 
was a pasture, and he ought to know, as he is a 
native and to the manner born. 

Four hundred and seventy-five miles from the 
Rio Grande, and the only trees seen were upon 
the little oases watered by tiny streams. We 
leave the plateau and climb the mountain into 
the city of San Luis de Potosi. 



CHAPTER III. 



SAN LUIS POTOSI. 



AND no more satisfactory city can be vis- 
ited than San Luis, situated in the crater 
of a fertile valley, while its suburbs ex- 
tend to the rich silver mines of the mountains 
which give it name. 

The mines have been worked over three hun- 
dred years, but the city is only two hundred 
years old. The mines were discovered to the 
Spaniards by a pious monk, who named them 
Potosi, because of the resemblance to the mines 
of Peru. 

Three million dollars annually, are mined. A 
very unusual thing for Mexico, the railroad 
station is in the heart of the city. Seventy-five 
thousand people make their home here, and the 
law requires all houses to be kept freshly painted; 
and what a restful revelation it is, with asphalt 
pavements swept clean each night, and hotels 
that make a traveler glad. The only drawback 
to complete happiness is a lack of water. Most 
cities here draw their water from the mountains 
in aqueducts, but San Luis has outgrown its 
supply. 

At the public fountains, a stream of water- 

45 



46 Land Without Chimneys. 

carriers by hundred stand patiently in line to 
fill their vessels from the tiny, discouraged 
stream trickling from the Dolphin's mouth, and 
the police stand guard to see that all are served 
in the order of arrival. All day and all night 
this pitiful waiting goes on forever. It is like 
buying tickets for the Symphony concerts in 
Boston, where the people come before day and 
buy choice places in the long line of earnest 
waiters. The water is free, but the successful 
ones sell to those in the city who do not care to 
enter the crush, or to the hotels and wealthy 
ones who can buy. All kinds of vessels are 
used, but the preference is given to the five-gal- 
lon cans that brought kerosene into the city. 

With two of these fastened to a shoulder 
yoke, the men peddle the water at three cents a 
can. With the women, the favorite is the large 
Egyptian model earthenware called olla. With 
this poised gracefully on one shoulder and elbow, 
and the opposite hand held across the head to 
balance, it completes one of the most picturesque 
scenes so common here. Rebecca at the Well 
has simply stepped out of the old picture book 
and assumed her ancient calling. The feature 
of the profession, however, is a man with a 
nondescript wheel-barrow which no man can 
describe. 

Rainfall is quite plentiful here, but the porous 
amygdaloid rocks can not hold it. At present 
an American citizen ie boring an artesian well, 
and the interest displayed by the citizens is re- 
markable. All day long hundreds of anxious 
watchers will stand around the drill, evincing 
the same interest we used to show at our board- 
ing house when the first strawberry short-cake 






San Luis Potosi. 47 

of the season was cut, and the anxious boarders 
were watching to see who would get the straw- 
berry. 

The burro train has lost its hold upon San 
Luis. For three hundred j^ears all the silver 
was carried to the sea, two hundred and seventy- 
five miles away, by burros, but now, with two 
railroads, things have changed. The Mexican 
National leads to the capital, the Mexican Cen- 
tral to the bay of Tampico. 

Here are many fine buildings to see; the Gover- 
nor's palace, palace of justice, State capitol,the 
museum, the library with a hundred thousand 
volumes, cathedral, and the churches of Carmen, 
Merced, San Augustin, San Francisco, Military 
College, and the Teatro de la Paz, one of the 
finest opera houses in the country. 

As in all the cities, the street cars start from 
the main Plaza, and from here you may visit 
Guadalupe, Tequisquiapan, the baths of La 
Soledad, Axcala and Santiago. 

In the rainy season, the street cars bear this 
legend: ''There is water in the river." As a 
matter of course, the cars do a land-office busi- 
ness as long as the water lasts. The cars lead 
to the Paseo, a beautiful shaded avenue two 
miles long, asphalt pavements, and fountains at 
either end, with the usual scramble for water. 

At the extreme end is the church of Guada- 
lupe, with two tall towers, and a fine clock 
presented by the king of Spain, in return for 
the gift of the largest single piece of silver ore 
ever taken from a mine— the mine of San Pedro. 

The city of San Luis Potosi is building a 
hall that is to be the eighth wonder of the 
world. It has cost millions and will cost mil- 



48 Land Without Chimneys. 

lions more. Seven years ago a dozen skilled 
stonemasons from Pennsylvania were imported 
to do the ornamental carving on the front. One 
Fourth of July a member of the party got drunk 
and killed a Mexican. He was tried and con- 
demned to be shot. 

Then arose the certainty that with him in the 
grave there would be no one to do the fancy 
carving on the City Hall, so it was decided to 
keep him at work and shoot him when he had 
finished. Every day this workman hangs like 
a fly against the great white wall and pecks 
away at gargoyles and griffins' heads, while a 
file of soldiers stand in the streets looking at him. 

His life ends with his job, and the Mexicans 
say he is the most deliberate workman in the 
world. At the present rate of progress, by the 
best obtainable calculations, the front of the 
City Hall will be sufficiently scrolled and carved 
about the middle of 1950. All the churches 
contain valuable paintings. 

The most remarkable thing about these cities, 
there is no noise. There is no 'steam, no manu- 
factories, no wagons, no drays, and as the peo- 
ple go without shoes, there is no noise of any 
kind. You may sit on the busiest street here and 
close your eyes, and feel all the quiet and com- 
fort of a cemetery. Those who like to 6leep 
late in the morning can better appreciate this. 
The days and nights are of equal length, and 
you could stop in the most populous hotel in 
the city and 6leep until ten o'clock in the day. 
No bell-boy, no breakfast bell; just quiet. The 
one exception to noise is the market place ; it 
was made for noise, and is different from all the 
others in the country. 



Ban Luis Potosi. 40 

In other cities there are several market places 
which relieve the congestion, but here there is 
but one. Before daylight the hubbub begins 
and lasts till noon, and the main building is 
soon crowded, and its overflow spreads to the 
four streets which pass it. There are no pass- 
ing vehicles, so from curb to curb are hundreds 
of women sitting flat upon the ground with 
their gray rebosas around their heads, and their 
scanty wares spread about. They sell every- 
thing, and the streets are redolent with unknown 
and unsavory odors from the charcoal braziers, 
from which the designing maid or matron offers 
her concoctions to the unsuspecting wayfarer. 

Of course you try some of these experiments; 
you do not know what you are eating, but it 
never kills. This compels me to say that very, 
very few people eat at home, but go to the 
market for their meals, going from one stall to 
the other. Another market feature, green corn 
is always offered cooked, and the same is true 
of sweet potatoes. Some people buy their sup- 
plies and take them home to be cooked, but 
green corn and potatoes never. They are both 
boiled with their jackets on, and if a vendor 
has a bushel, he or she boils the whole and 
stacks it up on the pavement, and it may be five 
or six hours later, the purchaser buys an ear 
and hulls the grains off and eats his dinner with 
no salt or accompaniment whatever. 

The market is never closed for three hundred 
and sixty five days in the year. In many stalls 
are wholesale dealers who supply the retailers. 
In unloading the corn or grain to put it in bins, 
there will be half a dozen women or children in 
the dust under the cart, scrambling for the 



50 Land Without Chimneys. 

grains as they fall from the sacks. When the 
cart has gone, they winnow all the dust through 
their hands loDking for the missing grain. 

These market gatherings are the simon-pure 
article of the native element, unadulterated 
by foreign influence. Here are Indians from the 
mountains, peons from the haciendas and peas- 
ants from the surrounding country and the 
gentry from the city, all hobnobbing together. 
The usual dress of these women vendors is 
startling. The Indians wear a string of beads 
around their necks and one or two yards of 
coarse cloth fastened wherever it will fit best, 
and they are dressed up. The peasants wear a 
string of beads and a chemise which commences 
too late above and stops too soon below, and all 
are barefoot. The high-caste women all dress 
in American or French styles, except that they 
wear no head gear but their own black hair, 
and they wear the most ill fitting high-heel, 
needle-pointed shoes that are made. The nat- 
ional color for Spanish and Mexican women is 
black. Meet a hundred ladies at a time, and 
every dress without exception is jet. I rather 
think it is vanity. We put salt on watermelon to 
enhance its sweetness by comparison, and so with 
black hair, black dress and fair skin, the con- 
trast I think was the final end sought. 

Elite society never appears on the street here 
till six o'clock, unless a fiesta or church service 
calls it out; and before that hour, what careful 
preparation is had? The hair is usually braided 
and let alone. A quantity of India ink along 
the eyebrows make a black en rapport with the 
hair, and a little belladonna in the eyes will 
add a sparkle that will wither up men's souls 



San Luis Potosi. 51 

and scatter them prone at her feet — metaphori- 
cally speaking, and when those cheeks have been 
kalsomined— I mean whitewashed— that is — 
painted, if the dear ladies will spare my life for 
mentioning it, and when mi-lady has thus per- 
formed her renovation — I mean toilet, and placed 
her diamonds on her neck where they will show 
best, and wrapped as to her shoulders with the 
diaphanous mantilla and steps under the electric 
light, I tell you she is — is indescribable. 

The dress of the men of the lower class is just a 
kaleidoscope, that's all. Some of the Indians are 
dressed like their women, in their long hair and a 
strip of cloth hung where it hangs the best. The 
high top straw sombrero or the Panama hat with 
a string under the chin is the prevailing style, 
although the more costly woolen hat is repre- 
sented. White cotton and brown linen constitute 
the dress goods. 

The usual cut of coat is a short jacket or 
jumper. Others wear a long sack coat, and 
instead of buttoning it they gather the two 
corners together and tie them in a knot. This 
distinctive style has a kind of freemasonry im- 
portance in which I was never initiated. Then 
his pantaloons are white, with the bottom widened 
immensely. The shepherds have a style all 
their own. They have a buckskin jacket 
cut short , and buckskin pantaloons cut long, 
with a row of buttons on the outside. Then he 
takes his knife and slits the legs inside and out, 
from the knee down, then he gathers up the 
ends and tucks them under his belt, and depends 
upon his underwear for effect on dress parade. 
He always scores. Some people might say he 



52 Land Without Chimneys. 

looks badly, but with his clan he is in very- 
correct form and why should you object? 

The porters, or public drays dress in white 
cotton, with one leg of their pants rolled up to 
the knee, leaving the leg bare. 

Around his neck he wears a large badge 
like a policeman's, with his official num- 
ber, showing that he is licensed to carry 
packages, from express money orders to upright 
pianos. He is the only express wagon here, and 
is absolutely reliable. He will shoulder your 
Saratoga and trot a mile without resting. I 
recall the case of one who stumbled with an 
American drummer's trunk on his back, and 
when the street commissioners gathered up his 
remains, they were spread over two square 
yards of pavement. P. S. the trunk was not 
injured. 

Four of these cargadors will carry your piano 
to any part of the city. For moving household 
goods, they have vans made on the plan of a hos- 
pital stretcher, with a man in the shafts at each 
end, and a rope passing over his shoulders to the 
shafts, and they will carry a dray load each 
time. Two dozen chairs by actual count is 
what I have seen one man carry. The mule has 
been promoted to the street car, out of respect 
to the two-legged express wagon. 

The dress of the cow-boy and rural police is 
something to admire. A high sombrero, costing 
from twelve to fifty dollars, weighted down with 
monograms and silver ornament. 

Leather or buckskin suit with silver buttons 
from boots to neckband. Silver spurs and silver 
bridle bits. Saddle whose every piece of orna- 
ment is solid silver, a horse-hair lariat, and if 



San Luis Potosi. 53 

he is a Burale, a rifle, and he sits his horse like 
a centaur. 

The dude is in a class alone, but he counts 
one when on dress parade. A tall, black som- 
brero with silver ornaments. Scarlet jacket, 
reaching to the waist, and sprayed with silver 
braid in fantastic designs. Buckskin panta- 
loons, flaring at the bottom and silver buttons 
all the way up, and along-side a series of cross- 
section slashes, interwoven with a beautiful 
ribbon from spur to waistband. Silver spur and 
bridle bit, a saddle worth as much as the horse, 
and a bright nickel-plated revolver buckled 
around his waist. 

At the fashionable hour for promenade, he 
mounts his horse, and slowly rides over the town 
and graciously permits the populace to admire 
him. I think he ought to be knighted for his 
liberality. Most people who go to that much 
trouble to shine, generally make you buy a dol- 
lar theater ticket for the pleasure of looking at 
him, strains his constitution and bylaws showing 
off, and cannot ride a horse at all. 

But commend me to the Mexican dude. After 
he has set the town agog, he turns up a certain 
avenue, which contains a certain house, pro- 
jecting from which is a balcony, in which dwells 
the only girl in town, and, after he has passed 
in all his silent glory, he throws bouquets at him- 
self for the wonderful impression he has made, 
and then goes home to undress. Earth cannot 
hold him much longer. I fear his own ardor 
and faith in -himself will finally sublimate him, 
but our loss is heaven's gain. The children; 
there are no children; they are just vest-pocket 
editions of old folks. Usually they are dressed 



54 Land Without Chimneys. 

in their innocence, but that is a quality of goods 
that does not last long here. When a boy is old 
enough to wear anything else, it is exactly like 
his father's, tall sombrero, pants that strike his 
heels, and a red sash around his waist. Sus- 
penders are not worn here. When a girl is no 
longer innocent, she dresses in a rebosa. By 
wrapping it around her head it reaches her feet. 
They don't have much time to be little for they 
marry at eleven and twelve. The upper class 
men, of course dress as Americans, but Paris 
sets the fashion in Mexico always. All these 
things you see at the market in San Luis 
Potosi, but you see them in hundreds, while I 
have only described them as individuals, and 
have not half turned the kaleidoscope yet. 

The streets must be all vacated by eleven 
o'clock at night, and when the hour for closing 
has arrived, nothing is locked up. The thousand 
and one vendors have no care for their goods. 
A piece of canvas is spread over them and a 
brickbat placed on to keep the wind from inter- 
fering, and they go home. 

The policeman does [the rest — he never sleeps. 
Crime does not pay in Mexico. The laws are 
as swift as a bolt of Jupiter. A person is 
arrested this morning, tried and shot before 
night. They waste no sentiment on criminals 
and they are too expensive to feed. 

Another curious custom is, the money received 
during the day must always be in sight. A 
wooden tray on top of a pile of goods holds the 
receipts of the entire day and not a piece is hid- 
den. The taxation law is very rigid, and a 
certain per cent, of all sales is collected by the 
city, and the inspector must be always free to 



San Luis Potosi, 5£> 

look at your sales and figure on his per cent. 

As hard as the law is on poor people, you 
never hear them complain. They respect the 
laws even though they do not like them. Just 
imagine an American counting up square and 
even with a tax collector on a day's sale ! When 
Bellamy gets his colony in working order and 
invites me to come and see the wonder of the 
twentieth century, that is the sight I want 
to see. 

The wearing of pistols here is not a sign of 
revolution. Probably it is not loaded, and a 
Mexican would not shoot you for anything. If 
his liver was out of order to the extent of want- 
ing your blood, he would take his knife and re- 
duce you to sausage meat, but shoot you, never. 
That is not his style. A pistol is as much an 
article of full dress as a pair of gloves would be 
in America, or a tin sword is to our military 
organizations. 

When Mexico had her monthly revolution, 
and when bandits used to come in and take the 
town, every man had to go armed in order to 
find himself after the cyclone; but she has com- 
parative peace now, yet wearing pistols for a 
hundred years has made it quite a habit. I 
went on an excursion with a party of harmless 
looking Mexicans, and we tried to sit down on a 
bench, and every man and boy of them had to 
unload his cannon pocket before he could sit 
down— and the other fellow<too. 

At your work, the law supposes you to be un- 
armed, but in making a journey, though it be 
the length of a street, you are allowed to arm 
against bandits. On every first and second-class 
car, ten out of every dozen men will carry huge 



56 Land Without Chimneys. 

revolvers, but you might live there for months 
and never hear of a person getting shot. 

In this great city, everything is so quiet you 
are constantly enquiring if anything has hap- 
pened, or is happening, or has any likelihood of 
happening ; you cannot understand the absence 
of noise and bustle. 

It finally dawns upon you that the native 
never hurries. He has mastered the ethics of 
rest, he never exerts himself. He does so de- 
light to sit himself down long and often and 
ponder over the wear and tear of the foreigner. 
The state feels as he does about it, so it has 
placed comfortable seats everywhere, where the 
native can rest. Just rest. He never "Helios" 
to an acquaintance across the street; if he 
wishes to speak, he motions with his hand. All 
this 6aves wear and tear, and by this means, 
the nation has saved vast stores of conservated 
energy to use in the next world. He has been 
saving energy for four hundred years and has 
never let any of it out. 

There is no " hello " on the street, and no ve- 
hicles, and everybody is barefooted, so there is 
no noise. They don't "hello " in the telephone. 
They talk some sweet, musical Spanish in it 
that is a real pleasure to listen to. Instead of 
thundering back "Who's that?" he sweetly 
says " Qui en habla ? " — Who speaks? 

The national watchword is, "Never do to-day 
what you can possibly put olf till to-morrow." 
An excursion agent went to a large hotel and 
asked what were the rates per day. "Four dol- 
lars," said the major-domo. "But my party 
contains seventy people, what rates do we get 
for the party?" "Four dollars and a half 



San Luis Potosi. 57 

each, more trouble." The same in buying 
goods. The man who buys wholesale quanti- 
ties has to pay for the extra trouble he causes 
the clerks. 

" Poco tiempo," — wait a little, is the national 
leveler for all difficulties and broken contracts. 
You order a suit of clothes to be delivered to- 
morrow. Tomorrow never comes — neither do 
the clothes. You get down your dictionary and 
hunt up all the cuss words you can command, 
and hurl them at that tailor, and expect to see 
him shrivel up before you. Does he ? Not a 
shrivel ! He offers }^ou a cigarette, carefully 
rolls one for himself and forces wreaths of smoke 
through his nostrils, and turning to you says: 
" Poco tiempo " — what's your hurry? Manana 
will do, tomorrow, tomorrow, manana comes, 
and also another poco tiempo. 

You engage a guide and want to go see a 
place you have come a thousand miles to see, 
and want to start this afternoon. "Well, why 
not manana ? You Americanos do hurry through 
life so!" He works two days, carving a wonder- 
ful cane he sells for a quarter. His two days 
tiempo count for nothing. He lives in yester- 
day and today, but never in tomorrow. He 
will wait for the millennium but will never go 
to meet it. He will never hurry from the com- 
forts of today into anxieties of tomorrow. 
Manana, the panacea for all ills, the JSTirvanah. 

The language of gesture has a new meaning 
here. When a person wants you to approach 
him, he frantically motions you away. When 
you see your lady acquaintance across the street, 
and she motions with her fingers and thumb for 
you to come to her, you must read it backwards 



58 Land Without Chimneys. 

because she does not mean it, she is simply 
recognizing you. 

When ladies meet and re-enact the great Amer- 
ican humbug of miscellaneous kissing, it is 
always given and received on the cheek. When 
two gentlemen meet, they rush into each others 
arms and rapidly pat each other on the back 
with the right hand, and finally shake hands, 
and if they meet each other a dozen times a day, 
they effusively shake. 

At the railway station, the departing friend 
embraces, pats, shakes, and jumps aboard. If 
the train is delayed, he gets out again and talks 
until the conductor cries, " Vamanos!" then he 
goes through the same performance again with 
each of his dozen friends, and when half a dozen 
lugubrious groups are similarly engaged, the 
conductor simply waits until they have finished. 

Indeed, to such an extent does this leaver-taking 
interfere with business that signs are placed 
up asking the people not to delay business by 
their long salutations. 

At Guanajuato the following sign is tacked 
up: — u Se suplica a los pasajeroes evifen las 
despididas y saludos prolong ados que retarder 
la marcha de los carros.^ 

In all places the innate politeness and courtesy 
of the people show a study for your comfort. 
In walking, your Mexican friend insists that you 
walk on the inside next the wall, while he walks 
next the street. In accepting an invitation for 
a carriage drive, you must enter first and accept 
the rear seat; but if a lady invites a gentleman 
he is not supposed to accept the rear seat when 
ottered. After the drive your host will alight 
first and assist you. In the street car, the 



San Luis Potosi. 59 

gentlemen always offer their places to ladies, 
and salute all passengers when entering and 
leaving the car. People have said they also 
shake hands with the driver, but I do not be- 
lieve all I hear. 

When you are introduced to a gentleman, he 
tells you his house and all his belongings are 
yours, giving you the street and number, and says : 
"Now you know where your house is." If you 
admire his horse or his paintings or his wife, 
he says: " Take them, they are yours." To be 
sure you are not expected to take him too literally, 
but it shows that the French are not the only 
people who claim politeness as a national trait. 

If you are invited to his house for refresh- 
ments, you are to precede your host on entering, 
but he will precede to the door when you signify 
your readiness to depart. 

The salutation on the street is " adios," the 
equivalent of the French adieu, but u buenos 
diets," " buenos tardes," and " buenos noches"" 
are also used for good morning, etc., and are 
always used in the plural. Why, the deponent 
sayeth not. One of the adjuncts of an introduc- 
tion, is for the native to offer his cigarette case; 
and to refuse the invitation to smoke, is to also 
refuse the introduction, and this little custom 
nearly brought trouble upon the writer's head. 
His early education had been sadly neglected, 
and the manly art of smoking had never been 
taught him, so he was forced to practice decep- 
tion on his kind friends to keep the peace. The 
deadly cigarette is rolled in the thin innershuck 
of the Indian corn, and holds its shape whether 
filled or not, so I filled my pocket with emp- 
ty cases. When my new-made friend asked that I 



60 Land Without Chimneys. 

smoke with him the pipe of peace, I replied 
cordially, " Si Senor," and took the proffered 
cigarette, and with the same hand felt in my 
pocket for a match and exchanged the loaded 
cigarette for a harmless one, and, presto! I am in 
good form and all goes merry as a marriage bell. 
He tells me his house, his sisters and all he 
has are mine for ever, and I quietly add another 
item to my million dollar possessions. In one 
summer I have acquired more wealth and real 
estate and beautiful maidens l)j actual gift, 
than Jay G. and Brigham Y. acquired in a life- 
time. 

Already I have become a bloated aristocrat, 
and daily receive and give away haciendas that 
cover nine square leagues of land. 

The custom-house officials already have their 
eye on me, and are even now figuring on the 
dividends they will declare when I attempt to 
leave the country, but every bitter has its anti- 
dote, so I am congratulating myself on the change 
of dates. A few years ago I was in this country 
when each state collected its customs' duties 
from every other state, and that sometimes 
meant two or three inspections daily. Now 
things have changed and they inspect only on 
the border, so I shall have fewer bribes to offer 
the officials from my newly-acquired millions. 

This people's generosity runs them into 
bankruptcy. Once a kind friend introduced 
himself to me, said he always did like my 
country and people, said he had a beautiful 
sister named Inez and she was mine. "Take 
her, senor, she is yours," also a whole block of 
buildings. I thanked him profusely and be- 
gan to take stock of my new possessions, when 



San Luis Potosi. 61 

he said in excellent English, "Have you a loose 
quarter about your clothes you could lend me to 
buy a supper ? " We had reached a part of the 
street where there was no light when he made 
his modest request, and he had his hand on a very 
persuasive looking knife. I had my eye on him 
and my hand on a good revolver, so in very choice 
Texas language I told him I had the drop on him. 

After reflecting that he had nearly impover- 
ished himself by enriching me with all his pos- 
sessions, I took pity on him and gave him a 
pewter quarter that some of my dear friends 
had passed on me that very morning. Instinct- 
ively his native politeness came to the front, 
and with hat in hand he kotowed, and in the 
softest of Spanish he thanked me a thousand 
and one times, and incidentally let the quarter 
fall to the pavement to catch the ring of it. 
Proving counterfeit money here is a regular 
trade which they all learn. 

Hereafter I shall positively refuse all gifts, 
because I am going to call upon the president, 
and when I admire the national palace he will 
of course say: "Take it, it is yours," and it will 
appear ungrateful in me to refuse it and mean in 
me to accept it, because all new presidents have 
to start a revolution; and then he might not ap- 
preciate my motives, and sometimes they do not 
understand American jokes till a week after their 
perpetration. This is due to British influence 
at the embassy. 

In the Capital I went once to a hotel, and be- 
fore the carriage could stop, three flunkies fell 
over themselves grabbing for my baggage, they 
were so glad to see me. One got an umbrella, 
one a camera and one a valise, and ran up stairs 



62 Land Without Chimneys. 

to my room to welcome me, and this welcome 
only cost me twenty-five cents. 

The proprietor wrung my hands and then 
wrung his own, and then spreading them out 
with a magnanimous gesture said : ' ' This hotel 
is yours senor, and all my servants; just make 
yourself at home." I blushed profusely and told 
him I certainly appreciated a four-story stone 
front on San Francisco Street, and I would re- 
member him in my prayers. 

After a week of his hospitality, when I offered 
to treat him to a cigar, he incidentally mentioned 
that I owed him sixteen reals for each day of 
my pleasant sojourn. I asked him what for. 
"Your room, senor." I told him very forcibly 
that he told me to make myself at home. " So 
I did," said he. "But I never pay board at 
home," said I, but the point was lost on him. 
He was wearing a British hat, impervious to 
jokes. Next summer he will ask me what I meant. 

This is the second time I have got into trouble 
by accepting largesse, and for the first time I 
understand what the old Trojans meant when 
they sa4d: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." 

Hereafter, I shall positively refuse all gifts, 
and sell off about twenty hotels and villas and 
haciendas which I have accumulated beyond 
my needs. That much wealth actually inter- 
feres with a man's rest and the color of his hair. 

While in this state of mind and also in San 
Luis Potosi, I will discourse on the Bill of Fare. 
I know a Boston friend who would have said 
William of Fare, but I never could talk Bos- 
tonese, and just plain bill of fare will do me, 
when I am traveling. The Texas lingo just 
says "Hash." 



CHARTER IV. 

THE BILL OF FARE. 

IF Cicero was right in his Be Senectute 
that old age can be enjoyed only by those 
who in youth preserve their vigor, then the 
blessings of Nirvanah are the rightful inheri- 
tance of Mexico, and she will never lose that 
inheritance if bustle and hurry will forfeit it. 

The hotels are run to suit the guests. When 
you arrive, you register, and when you next 
enter the corridor, you see upon the large black- 
board your name, room, title, residence, desti- 
nation, past history and future prospects and 
whatever else that will be of interest to the 
public. Now all of that is a labor-saving 
machine, and saves nerve tissue and wear and 
tear. 

When the newspaper reporter wants news, he 
steps into the hotel corridor, and the proprietor 
silently points to the blackboard and goes to 
sleep again. The reporter reads the bulletin 
board and goes off and writes a two-column 
li interview" upon what Mr. A. thinks of Mexico, 
and you are saved all unnecessary prevaricating. 
The system is also very helpful to the police in 
search of lost friends for whom they have formed 

63 



64 Land Without Chimneys. 

strong attachments, and for the custom house 
officials who have word that you passed a cer- 
tain station and will bear watching. The 
bulletin board is a very diverting study in black 
and white for ordinary people, who look for the 
names of chance friends whom they do not ex- 
pect, but who might be there. And the porters 
and curio vendors scan the list and patiently 
await your arrival on the street and tell you all 
about yourself. It is a regular bunco steer, 
but he is different from the genuine article. 
The g. a. will enveigle you somewhere and beat 
you on the sly. The Mexican artist stops in 
the broad sunlight, right in front of your hotel 
and beats you to your teeth. 

He will sell you curios three hundred years old 
that he made last month, and has been waiting 
every day since for a person of just about your 
state of greenness and inexperience to sell to. 
As soon as he fleeces you, he kindly offers to 
find other rare bric-a-brac for you that he does 
not deal in, and will take you to his pal who is 
working other pastures. After you return to 
your friends and proudly show your acquisi- 
tions, some one who knows, will solemnly diag- 
nose your head for phrenological knowledge. 
When he has diagnosed to his satisfaction, he 
will painfully tell you that your bump of Jack- 
assedness is abnormally developed. He will ad- 
vise you to learn that little line of Shakespeare, 
or some other authentic writer that says: "I 
was a stranger and ye took me in." 

The hotel Bulletin is a great convenience. 
When you have found your room, you take an 
inventory, which will serve you in every other 
city. If you are in the city of Mexico, the in- 



The Bill of Fare. 65 

ventory includes glass windows (elsewhere, it 
will be windows with iron bars) an iron bedstead 
built for one — which may or may not be inhab- 
ited — an iron was 1 * stand with iron enameled 
bowl and pitcher, chair, table, half a candle 
and candlestick. Kerosene is fifty cents a gal- 
lon. The scarcity of wood makes itself felt 
everywhere. The table, door and chair are the 
only things made from that precious article. 
Stone floors forever, which may be or may not 
be carpeted. The walls are decorated with 
printed placards giving the price per day, week, 
or month, sin o con comida — without or with 
board. 

The marvel of the establishment is the door- 
key. A man with such a piece of iron on his 
person in the States would be arrested for car- 
rying concealed weapons. It is so heavy they 
have made arrangements to relieve the lodger 
from carrying it. In the corridor is a keyrack 
with numbers, and a man stands all day to re- 
ceive your key when you go out and to return it 
to you when you come back. The servant goes 
to him for it to clean up the room, and I have 
never known a lost or misplaced article under 
this system. The lock and key are made by 
hand at the blacksmith shop, and I think are 
sold by the pound. They are usually fastened 
upon huge rough doors made in the carpenter 
shop, and put together with three-inch wrought 
iron nails, with an inch or more of the point 
clinched on the opposite side from which they 
are driven. Of course there are neither fire- 
places nor stoves in any hotel, but one, in the 
whole country. 

The hotels are arranged in quadrangles, with 



66 Land Without Chimneys. 

the four sides facing an open court, redolent 
with flowery fragrance and fruits and bird 
music. Usually a fountain plays in the center, 
and in fair weather the table is spread here. 
Every story has an open veranda which looks 
upon this court. In the City of Mexico, the 
thermometer hesitates between 65 and 75°F, so 
when the rainy season is not on, meals can be 
had in the patio the year around. In the morn- 
ing you rise at six or ten or any other hour that 
suits your fancy. No bells rung, no doors shaken, 
no noise made — you are simply let alone, and 
when you come, no frowns for your delay. 

You ask when is the breakfast hour. " When 
the senor wishes." If you go to the table at 
six the servant brings hot coffee and rolls, as 
though the whole establishment was wound up 
to start at that minute. Should you sit down 
at half past nine, the Senora would declare by 
all the saints as witnesses that you are just in 
time and she was looking for you at that mo- 
ment. You feel that you might be discommod- 
ing the establishment, so you ask for the dinner 
hour. The answer will be graciously given, 
"From twelve to three-thirty we shall be 
honored to serve you, and if not at those hours, 
when the Senor wishes." Finally you learn 
that there is no dinner hour, the bell is never 
rung, the table is never set, but whenever you 
choose to eat, the servants are to serve you. An 
ordinary dinner lasts two hours and these meals 
are what the people live for. The following, for 
one day may be termed an average : 



The Bill of Fare. 67 

BILL OF LADING. 



BREAKFAST. 

Coffee, Bread, Cookies. 



DINNER. 

1 Soap. 

2 Bice, Radishes. 

3 .Eggs. 

4 Beef, Corn, Snap-beans, Cabbage, Parsnips, Gambane. 

5 Steak, Potatoes. 

(5 Sausage, Chili. 

7 Brains. 

8 Frijoles. (black beans), 

9 Coffee, Fruits, Wine, Cigars. 



SUPPER. 

1 Soup, Vermicelli. 

2 Mutton, Potatoes, Chili. 

3 Mutton Chops, Potatoes, Calabashes. 

4 Chicken with Salad, Stewed Bananas, Frogs. 

5 Frijoles. 

6 Preserves, Fruits, Wines, Cigars. 
******* 

The stars stand for certain dishes that only 
Mexicans call for and their name and flavor 
would never be known to a foreigner. The 
coffee is grown in the state of Vera Cruz and is 
excellent, and is made strong and thick. The 
usual method of serving is to half-fill your cup, 
and add an equal quantity of milk. It is 
sweetened with little cubes of white sugar, or 
the native brown article, called pilonces. 

The bread used for breakfast is a species of 
cooky that represents the baker's highest art. 
Nothing approaching it have I found elsewhere. 
Prosquitos de la mantecait is called, and is made 
into rings, loops and bows. It is brittle, crisp 
and sweetened, but not so much as a doughnut. 
Another kind is prepared in spherical segments 
and crescents, and is built of numbers of exceed- 
ingly thin layers of dough with fruit between, 



68 Land Without Chimneys. 

and so frail, that when once broken it falls to 
pieces in crisp fragments like Prince Rupert's 
Drops, the glass phenomena the teacher in 
Physics used to astound us with. How they 
can give it the tension to fly to pieces was one 
of the things that a layman in the cooking art 
does not imbibe freely. This fabric is very ap- 
propriately called pastel. The distinctive feature 
of the meal is, they give you only one thing at 
a time in the order I have numbered them, and 
they come in serials as unchanging as the seasons. 
After a few meals you become quite expert in 
guessing what will come next. 

If there are ten plates stacked by you, you 
know there will be ten courses of one dish each. 
You have already learned that soup, rice and 
eggs are the first three, and the next to the last 
is always beans with coffee closing, so you have 
only five to guess. Mirabile dictu, the national 
dish and universal dessert is beans, just ordinary 
beans, but the people don't know enough to say 
'beans,' they spell it frijoles and pronounce it 
free-hole-ahs. You will notice that they spell 
better than they pronounce. As a labor of pure 
love and charity to my fellow countrymen of 
Boston, I say to them, beware ! Your prestige 
is in danger. As a race of bean-eaters, the 
Mexicans have about three hundred years the 
start of you and they have about nine different 
varieties to practice on, and a different aroma 
of garlic to fit each one. Besides all that they 
eat beans . There are thirty-five tribes of Indians 
in Mexico, speaking one hundred and fifty lan- 
guages and dialects, but they are all united on 
frijoles, and they have entered the contest to 
beat Boston or eat up all the bean6. 



The Bill of Fare. 69 

The national dish is a trinity, composed of 
frijoles, tortillas and chili. The tortilla is of 
common stock but aristocratic in association. 
You sit at the table as a foreigner, and baker's 
bread will be set before you, and the Mexican 
at your left will be the governor of the state 
and the waiter brings him a stack or tortillas. 

The tortillas reduced to United States' talk is 
just corn batter cakes. The architectural plan 
of their building is simple. The corn is put in 
lime water over night to soak and soften, and 
the next morning is put on a hot stone, and the 
women take another stone and pound it into 
meal ; then they take water and make it up into 
cakes and half cook on a stone and stack them. 
No salt or grease or any thing but water is put 
with it. They look like circles of brown sole- 
leather and, when about three days old are 
about as tough and tasteless. This is the bread 
of Mexico, the staff of life.. The approved 
method of eating it, is to spread it out, put on 
a spoonful oifrijoles and roll it into a cylinder, 
then eat it as though it were a banana. 

Chili is the third member of the trinity and 
is everything else but chilly — it is hot. It in- 
cludes every kind of green, red and yellow 
pepper, and is cooked with nearly every article 
of food, and is cooked by itself and is eaten 
raw, but is hot always. The natives eat so much 
chili that it acts as an antiseptic, and I was 
N told by a man who ought to know that in the 
Mexican war soldiers left on the field lay dead 
for weeks and could not decay but dried up. 
That is true now, but it is not chili but altitude 
that prevents dissolution. Fresh meat cannot 
spoil nor ean vegetables rot. I can stand chili 



70 Land Without Chimneys. 

in broken closes, but when they gave me a big 
green pepper as large as an apple and stuffed 
with stuffing and dressed with dressing and 
swimming in an innocent looking sauce and 
disguist d with a name I never heard of before, 
do you blame me if I thought I had struck a 
new tropical fruit and cut a respectable quarter 
of it off and made its acquaintance? Did I raise 
a howl ? Ask of the winds that far around with 
fragments strewed the sea. 

If ever I catch that girl outside of the state 
of Vera Cruz I shall teach her a lesson. Her 
name was Guadalupe, but she lacks much of 
being a model follower of the good saint by that 
name. She gave me green gourds stewed with 
water cress or some other green thing I never 
heard of and called it calabash, and I knew no 
better. Then she gave me cabbage boiled with 
bananas and bread fruit, and said that was all 
the style in Vera Cruz, and finally she invented 
this other villainy. She thinks I am not accus- 
tomed to fine living, but I hope yet to have my 
revenge. If she crosses the river into Texas, I 
mean to get her into a railroad eating-house 
there and compel her to eat some of those terra- 
cotta images they sell for ham sandwiches, and 
when lock-jaw sets in, she will have to keep her 
mouth shut as long as I had to keep mine open 
with that loaded green pepper. 

When these people get hold of any meat, they 
roll it up in the tortilla and call it enchilada. 
They cook light bread after the pattern of a 
naval torpedo. The loaf is about the size of a 
Mason's fruit jar, pointed at both ends like a 
torpedo, and baked to a crust half an inch 
thick. Such a loaf would do you bodily injury 



The Bill of Fare. 71 

in the hands of your enemy. I saw so many 
curious things brought from the invisible work- 
shop. I found my way back there and told the 
cook I was in pursuit of knowledge and wanted 
to see, and veni vidi — I learned. No stove, not 
an iron or tin or metal vessel of any kind was 
visible in the land without chimneys. 

A wall of earth and masonry is built up, waist 
high, like a blacksmith's forge. All around 
this are port-holes in which the charcoal fire 
is made, and all over the top of the forge are 
holes for the cooking vessels, which are made of 
unglazed earthenware, and this is all. The 
charcoal makes no smoke, so there is no need of 
chimneys. Necessity is the mother and grand- 
mother of invention, and these people have 
jogged along five hundred years without iron 
vessels, and they cook about as well as some folks 
I know. 

The servants are models of their kind. With 
their sandaled feet they glide about without 
noise and do their work without murmur. You 
leave your soiled linen in their charge and find 
it on your bed as white as snow. They receive 
your gratuity with a thousand thanks and pro- 
found obeisance, stumble over their own feet to 
do you some unnecessary service, and as soon as 
off duty they offer to guide you about the 
city. They are rarely off duty until they have put 
in sixteen hours of hard work, then the blanket 
and stone floor make the only parenthesis be- 
tween his day's grind and tomorrow. The serv- 
ing class is more servile than can be found 
anywhere. They take more abuse and less 
wages. Five dollars a month, Mexican money, 
is high water mark for female servants, and 



72 Land Without Chimneys. 

that reduced to American money means forty 
dollars a year. When spoken to by a superior, 
they must always answer in a deprecating man- 
ner as: "Ever at your service;" "Yours to 
obey;" "At your command," etc. 

All pretentious houses and hotels are built in 
quadrangles, with a carriage driveway enter- 
ing a huge gate to the open court. At night 
this is closed by a pair of tall gates or doors 
twelve or fifteen feet high, like those in front of 
our fire companies, and a servant must lie there 
all night to answer a summons or to admit a 
belated lodger. Without changing the clothes 
he has worn all day, he lies on the soft side of a 
stone pavement night after night with his 
zerape or a piece of straw matting under him, 
and a stone for a pillow. In the interior, women 
servants often lie on the floor in hallways, in 
order to be handy should a guest need light or 
water during the night, or to admit lodgers to 
upper floors after closing time, and they also 
sleep in the clothes they wear during the day. 

Travelers on the ocean either lose or gain a 
day in crossing the line, depending upon which 
direction they are going, and in Mexico you 
either lose a meal or gain a surplus name for 
one you did not get. 

The morning lunch of bread and coffee is 
called deseyuno. The breakfast proper, from 
twelve to three, is almuerzo. From four to 
eight is the principal meal called com id a, dinner, 
or cena, supper, whichever you choose to call it. 
I tried faithfully to keep up with them all, but 
I always felt that I had lost something in keep- 
ing tally on four meals and only remembered 
eating three. I believe there is a trick in it. 



The Bill of Fare. 73 

Salt meats are never seen except in American 
restaurants, and they sell at fifty cents a pound. 
Pork is always dressed by skinning the animal 
and not by scraping. No person needs to go to 
market. Everything is brought to your door 
by peddlers. The table is usually set in the court 
among the flowers, and it is a very common oc- 
currence for peddlers to go to the head of the 
table with a basket of fruit and dicker bargains 
with the hostess during the meal. This method 
makes the meat supply very precarious except 
on Monday. After the bull-fights Sunday after- 
noon, all the slaughtered bulls are sold to the 
market. 

On Monday when the proprietor asks me how 
I liked my steak, I always feel like giving him 
some American slang and saying, "It was bully." 
The fruits are the very best, and as the season 
is perpetual, you can secure them fresh every 
day, such as strawberries, bananas, pine ap- 
ples, mangos, figs, limes and agua eates or bread 
fruit. The lime is larger than the orange, but 
not so sweet and is used in the place of lemons. 
It is at the market place where you see the 
fruits in all their profusion, and are tempted to 
eat your dinner under the unusual surroundings. 

Here you eat by faith, the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 
I hope no one will accuse me of irreverence for 
using these words, but they just suit me in this 
particular. 

A suitable motto for the general market eating 
houses ought to be tacked over the entrance, 
and, with suitable apologies to Mr. Dante's 
Inferno, that motto ought to read: "Who 
enters here leaves Soap behind." The cooking 



74 Land Without Chimneys. 

is done while you wait, and chief among the 
things you eat by faith is the hot taniale — twice 
hot, once by pepper and once by steam. The 
vendor has a large tinned bucket enclosed by a 
blanket to hold the steam, and the whole con- 
tained in a willow basket. If your faith is suf- 
ficient, you call for a dozen tamales and the 
vendor fishes from its steaming, greasy depths, 
an article wrapped in sections of corn shucks. 
On dissecting the article you find ' about equal 
parts of corn meal, chili and bits of meat. And 
the meat ! Aye, there's the rub ! If we only 
knew. There are tamales and tamales, All 
kinds and conditions of meat are said to find a 
last resting place in the taniale. Carlyle calls 
the process Sartor Besartus, or the tailor made 
over; the great American faith article of the 
same vintage is plain "hash." 

Beef, pork, chicken, frogs and armadillos are 
all known to the trade, and dark hints or innuen- 
does to that effect, say that the fat prairie dogs 
and the Chilhuahua pups make prime tamales. 
The prairie dog is always fat. The Chilhuahua 
pup is only a vest-pocket edition of dog that 
weighs about two pounds, and the other genus 
or species of Mexican dog that I know has a 
blue skin and no hair except on the end of his 
tail. The ordinary taniale is anonymous, and 
it is well, for, like the boarding house hash, it 
is better in cog. 

The tunas from the prickly pear and the alga? 
from the canals and irrigating ditches also enter 
into the bill of fare. With conscious pride in 
my ability to grapple with the unknown, I made 
a foolish boast that there was nothing in the 
Mexican market that my stomach had bolted at, 



The BUI of Fare. 75 

although my taste and my stomach had some 
pretty lively debates concerning the editorial fit- 
ness and filthiness of certain things. 

But in an evil hour I boasted. I believe the 
good book says pride goeth before a fall. I was 
proud. I had bearded the Mexican lion in his 
den and had eaten through the lines. I had 
met the enemy and " they were our'n, " and I 
boasted of my cast-iron stomach. 

My friend said : ' ' Have you eaten any Gusanas 
de la Maguey ? No? Well, come with me." 
Now gentle reader, "If you have tears prepare 
to shed them now." You have seen a tomato- 
worm. Well ! the word gusana means worm, 
and this particular gusana is built on the- 
order of a tomato worm, but he lives in better 
pasture on the maguey plant, and grows a little 
larger and a little fatter than your middle finger, 
or say the size of a cannon fire-cracker. 

As we approached the market my knees got 
weak. I had had my pride, and was now going 
for my f — gusanas. 

I felt that a volcanic eruption was about to 
take place in my immediate neighborhood, and 
remarked that nature was very kind to these 
people. My friend neither stopped nor made a 
shadow of turning, but marched straight to a 
sorcerer he knew and said, " Senora, my friend is 
anxious for some gusanas de la maguey at my 
expense." 

She slowly fished up a dozen stewed, and I 
fainted! (Curtain.) 




CHAPTER V. 

IN THE VALLEY OF THE LAJA. 

EYOND San Luis we come to Villa Reyes 
with the immense Hacienda of Jaral, 
which at one time controlled 20,000 peon 
laborers, and during the Revolution of 1810, 
furnished a full regiment of cavalry to the Vice- 
roy to fight the patriots. Beyond is the town of 
Dolores Hidalgo, "The Sorrowful Hidalgo," 
where was born Hidalgo, the George Washington 
of Mexican Independence. Sept. 15, 1810, he set 
the watchfires burning which dimmed not till 
Spanish misrule was ended in 1820. Still nearby, 
is the city of San Miguel De Allende, also named 
for Allende, another patriot priest who, like 
Hidalgo, suffered martydom for Mexican lib- 
erty. 

Here are the famous baths, with the water 
gushing from the mountain side, through the 
baths to the evergreen gardens and fruits and 
flowers in the valley. This city is situated on 
the enchanted Cerro de Moctezuma, and over- 
looks the beautiful valley of the La ja (Lah-hah.) 
The Hotel Allende was once the palatial home of 
a wealthy and pious man, Senor Don Manuel 
Tomas de la Canal and his wife who donated the 
chapel of the Casa de Loreto. Here is a beau- 
tiful Gothic church, the only one in Mexico, 

76 



In the Valley of the Laja. 77 

and was the work of a native architect who 
drew his plans with a stick in the sand, and 
this was the only guide his workmen had. A 
dozen miles from San Miguel is the town of 
Atonfconilto, famous as the place where Allende 
and Hidalgo started with the Banner of the 
Virgin of Guadalupe, and marched with it to 
San Miguel and opened the Revolution. Here 
we leave the plain and enter the Vale of Laja, 
250 miles north of the city of Mexico. Before 
us is a frowning gateway of solid rock, but fol- 
lowing the shimmering little river, the beautiful 
valley breaks upon the view like a panorama. 
Everywhere is the pepper tree, loaded to the tips 
with the beautiful berries that look so much 
like our cherries. Dame Nature here is at her 
best. Bananas, oranges, lemons and pome- 
granates everywhere shade the peaceful homes 
whose acres in the rear are covered with maize 
and pepper and fruits and flowers. 

The people of Mexico do not live in the coun- 
try, but in cities, towns and hamlets, and prefer 
to thus live and travel long distances to their 
work. In the Vale of Laja, it is one continual 
series of hamlets, where the canon has widened 
into a beautiful valley whose season is perpetual 
summer. Whatever grows elsewhere, grows 
here. Up the rocky slopes where cultivation is 
impossible, the rich lava soil still supports 
countless thousands of maguey and cactus 
plants that produce food and fuel, drink and 
clothing. -The bushels of succulent tunas that a 
single cactus bears, will feed a family for weeks, 
and the only labor required is the picking. A stalk 
of maguey will furnish in its undeveloped bud an 
excellent substitute for cabbage. The unfer- 



78 Land Without Chimneys. 

merited sap is the agua miel y or honey water of 
commerce. When fermented, a single stalk will 
furnish for months a gallon a day of pulque. 
Its broad leaves, which are eight feet long, 
furnish a thatch for the house, and when dried, 
an excellent fuel. It is here the natives laze 
their time away from sheer ennui. It is in this 
valley the railroad contractors never go to hunt 
laborers. A Mexican works when he is hungry, 
and why should he be hungry in this valley 
where his rations may be had for the picking ? 
And what would he do with money ? The saloon 
has no charms where every man is his own dis- 
tiller, and the law gives no occasion for "moon- 
shine " and "blind tiger." So it is the poor 
plains' people who grade the road and drive the 
spikes, and even here the railroad people exper- 
ience difficulties. The native has an inseparable 
attachment for his humble home, and will not 
under any circumstance follow a construction 
gang far. When the construction train has 
passed his home two or three miles, he finds it 
too far to return home at night, and the next 
day he bolts for home, and the company has to 
hire new laborers in the neighborhood; but when 
the work gets too far to walk home, they throw 
up their jobs also. If a few are influenced to 
remain, the whole family joins the procession, 
and move their temporary residence each day. 
The same is true of the army. When on the 
march it rarely has to supply a commissary, as 
each soldier's wife follows the march and cooks 
for him. In the midst of each hamlet in this 
valley is to be seen the ever-present bell tower, 
and, clustered among the orange trees, the little 
chapel. The native may have no other resting 



In the Valley of the Laja. 79 

place but mother earth, but his last penny will 
go to build his church. 

While drinking in the beauties of the valley, 
we suddenly turn into the equally beautiful city 
of Celaya, in the state of Guanajuata. 

In 1570, sixteen married men and seventeen 
bachelors founded the town, and it increased so 
in population, that in 1655, by a decree of 
Philip IV, of Spain, it was made a city, but it 
was three years afterwards that the inhabitants 
found it out. For beauty and importance of 
location, Celaya has no peer. Here is a junc- 
tion of the two most important railroads, the 
Central and National, which offer transportation 
in every direction for the product of its woolen 
mills and the extensive haciendas throughout 
the valley. 

This is a great market for opals. As a pre- 
cious stone, the opal ranks high, but on account 
of its reputed bad luck, there are people who 
would not wear one as a gift. Those of Hungary 
and Australia are harder than these, but the 
fiery, prismatic glint of the opals of Celaya sur- 
passes any in the old country. I have heard of 
a fourteen carat opal in Hungary that could not 
be bought for five thousand dollars. In Celaya 
they are of all grades and all prices, but the 
most remarkable thing about them is, in Celaya 
everybody offers them for sale. It does not 
matter when the train arrives, in the grey of 
morning or the dead of night, the ragged vendors 
are always on hand. As the train pulls into the 
station, a hundred hands will be thrust through 
the fence pickets, and in each hand, on a piece 
of black cloth, lie the beautiful gems, sparkling 
in the artificial light. 



80 Land Without Chimneys. 

"All Americanos are rich," is a saying of 
these people, as honestly believed as the cate- 
chism, and all prices are made on that basis. 
If your early education has been neglected in 
the line of precious stones, } r ou will do well to 
let these pirates pass, for they are Shyloeks all, 
these black-eyed natives. 

One will look you in the eye, cross himself 
and swear by all the saints that fifty dollars or 
nothing will move his opal. 

If you know your business and the price of 
opals, you have the money in your hand, and as 
the train starts, hold the silver temptingly be- 
fore his eyes, and rare is the case when this 
will not "fetch" him. 

An opal may be precious, but to a hungry 
man, silver is more precious. And that little 
trick is good for other trades as well as opals. 

Anxiety or interest on your part is as fatal 
as greenness in trading with these sharpers. 
Utter contempt and unconcern on your part, 
throws the burden of concern upon him, and he 
soon begins to make concessions by asking how 
much will you give. However much you may 
want a thing, you must impress him that it is 
purely a matte r of sympathy for his poverty 
that you buy. You may slyly hear him set the 
price to one of his countrymen, and when you 
come up and ask the price, without turning a 
hair, he will multiply it by two. 

The city of Celaya has much of interest in 
the church line, which is the base of all great- 
ness in this priest-ridden land. These are said 
to be the prettiest churches in Mexico. The 
one of Our Lady of Carmen contains the chapel 
of the Last Judgment and the most beautiful 



In the Valley of the Laja. 81 

paintings and frescoes. San Francisco, San 
Augustin, Tercer Orden are all hung with paint- 
ings of the Michael Angelo of Mexico, Eduardo 
Tresguerres, painter, architect and sculptor, a 
native of Celaya. 

The public buildings are worth seeing and 
the baths are delightful. I have never heard 
this town spoken of in connection with beauti- 
ful women, but the most beautiful madonna 
face I have seen outside a picture frame, I saw 
here at the railroad station, and the artist 
who would paint a picture of beauty should 
seek this Celayan Helen, and yet from her ap- 
parel, she was of humble family, but so was 
Cinderella. 

This city is especially noted for its dulcies, 
or sweetmeats, and here are made the best in 
Mexico. To be in good form of course you 
must eat some Celayan dulcies ; and having 
satisfied your conscience, we pass into the Vale 
of Solis. 

No serpent ever made a more tortuous track 
than did our train, trying to leave that valley 
through the canon cut by the fretful little river 
in ages past. Up the perpendicular cliffs which 
would shame Magara, we find a trail blasted 
from the granite sides just wide enough to ad- 
mit the track. Under a beetling cliff we pass 
El Salfco de Medina, or Medina's Leap. So goes 
the story : Juan Medina was a famous bandit 
when those gentlemen of the road carried the 
riches and cares of the country upon their shoul- 
ders, and most generously relieved the good 
people of all trouble in looking after their 
wealth. Spanish history does not mention that 
they ever received a vote of thanks for the self 



82 Land Without Chimneys. 

imposed duties, but such is the nature of this 
sordid world. But one day a committee did 
call upon the bandit on some very pressing busi- 
ness when he was not receiving guests. Perhaps 
the committee had forgotten his "day at home." 
The intrusion so disturbed the bandit that he 
started away on the pony express, and the com- 
mittee actually began shooting at him, and, see- 
ing no other escape from his friends, he spurred 
his horse over the chasm and was dashed to 
atoms. I did not see the atoms, but I saw the 
cliff three or four hundred feet high, and if you 
believe the first part of the story, the atomic 
theory was easy. 

Not a shrub is visible to mar the vision of 
this huge pile of granite reaching a thousand 
feet in the air. Creeping along its side we 
enter the Lopilote Canon, almost as dark as a tun- 
nel. There must be somt thing in a name. Lo- 
pilote means buzzard, and I suppose it is called 
Lopilote canon because the buzzards have no 
where else to roost but on the edge of the canon, 
as there is not a bush visible. It reminds me of 
the man who had a horse that was named Na- 
poleon, all on account of the bony part. On the 
rear platform is the place to stand. This is a 
narrow-guage road, and only has room for the 
cars with no margin for landscape. Standing 
on the steps you can easily touch the rock wall 
on one side with your hand, while on the other 
you may hear the splash of the imprisoned 
waters over a sheer fall of many hundreds of 
feet, but nothing can be seen. The engineer 
can see only one coach behind his engine as he 
makes his famous curve of 85 degrees, the short- 
est on any road in America. Up and straight 






In the Valley of the Laja. 83 

ahead, where the eye can see only granite walls 
with peaks bathed in clouds, and no visible 
means of passage, but at last light breaks 
through the top, and the devil's hole is passed. 

What a sigh of relief it is to be over with the 
nervous strain. What if a wheel had slipped or an 
axle broken, or astray rock had fallen upon that 
ten foot trail ? There was hardly a chance in a 
million for a life to have been saved. It re- 
called the dilemma of a negro who was asked his 
preference of travel, by rail or steamboat. He 
unhesitatingly chose the railroad with this argu- 
ment : " Ef the train runs off the track, dar 
3 T o is. Ef the steamboat sinks, whar is you ? " 
He had never traveled the Lopilote Canon when 
he made the remark, or he would have chosen to 
walk . 

Once out of the Sierra Madre Mountains, we 
are again in the beautiful Vale of Lerma. The 
river Lerma is the longest in Mexico, seven hun- 
dred miles, and changes its name to Rio Grande 
de Santiago before it empties into the Pacific. 
We cross the river at the beautiful city of 
Acambaro, in the state of Guanajuata, where a 
branch road leads to Morelos and Patzcuaro, the 
beautiful lake region. Here is a quaint old 
arched bridge, built in 1513. Here were head- 
quarters for the Army of Independence, under 
Hidalgo in 1810, and Gen. Scott's army crossed 
this bridge on the march to the city of Mexico. 
This is called the most self-satisfying city in 
Mexico, and lies hidden among the trees a half 
mile from the station. The lover of the quaint 
and curious should by all means see this old 
town of ten thousand inhabitants, whose only 
diversion is to go down and see the train come 



84 Land Without Chimneys. 

in. Its quietness is oppressive, and the town 
seems to be under a spell like the enchanted city 
in the Arabian Nights. 

The fine music by the female orchestra is one 
of the attractions. In the foreground is the 
river Lerma, in the background the trees ever 
green and the mountains ever blue, and peeping 
up here and there the towers of old churches, 
which altogether make an enchanted scene worth 
your journey to see. 

It was many centuries ago that the Tarascan 
and Otomite Indians built this town, and in 
152G Don Nicholas Montanes marched his Span- 
ish troops through the quiet town and laid the 
foundation of the Catholic church we see in all 
its glory today. The hand of the vandal has 
not yet laid hold of Acambaro with its modern 
innovations and church repairs according to 
fin du siecle notions of architecture, so the town 
really looks the age it claims, and the descen- 
dants of these same Indians live in the identical 
houses their ancestors built. 

In the Calle de Amargura are fourteen little 
chapels commemorating the stations of the cross, 
ending in the Soledad on the hill. The church 
of San Francisco and the deserted convent have 
their especial charms. Acambaro is in the state 
of Guanajuata (ican-a- water), but in the See of 
Michoacan. While sitting in the beautiful 
plaza whose immense trees reach to the eaves of 
the old convent towers, you see a carriage ap- 
proaching drawn by two white mules. As it 
draws near the crowd, a tall, fine-looking man 
in Long black robe appears and holds his hands 
above his head. Instanter, every person in 
sight of that carriage falls to his kuees or upon 



In the Valley of the Laja. 85 

his face, and remains until the hands of the 
mysterious stranger are lowered. It is the 
Bishop of Miehoacan on the way to his palace 
in Morelia, and he stopped to bless the people. 
Slowly and reverently the worshipers rise from 
their groveling in the dust, with a radiance 
upon their dusky faces as though the Son of 
God had just passed by. This is the class of 
people that keep Mexico living back in the 
seventeenth century. 

Still down the Lerma from Acambaro is the 
Hacienda de Robles extending thirty-three kilo- 
meters on each side of the river, and which fur- 
nishes hundreds of peons, and still further is the 
city of Irapuata, the perpetual home of the 
strawberry. For three hundred and sixty-live 
days in the year no train has ever passed Ira- 
puata without strawberries being offered for 
sale, for in this rich valley it is perpetual seed- 
time and harvest. The whole year is spring- 
time, and the energies of all the people are 
devoted to strawberries. It was Sydney Smith 
who said: "Doubtless God Almighty could have 
made a better berry than the strawberry, but 
God Almighty has never done so." The fresas 
are all offered in a basket holding from one pint 
to three quarts, and are arranged with great 
care, so that the large ones shall all be on top. 
If you know your business you do not buy till 
the train is pulling out, and then a silver dime 
gets fresas, basket and all. When you consider 
that a Mexican dime is worth five and a half 
cents in Uncle Sam's money, }^ou can figure out 
the cost at leisure. The basket would sell at 
fifteen cents in the States, and the bottom does 
not punch up to the middle either. When I 



86 Land Without Chimneys. 

look at my pile of empty baskets, I wonder if I 
cheated the little pirates, but I get my balm in 
knowing that hundreds of people pay them the 
thirty or forty cents they first ask for them, 
which will enable them to strike a balance sheet. 
I know strawberries are perishable, and a 
twenty-five cent basket today will not be worth 
a dime by the next train time, which is next 
day so I offer him the price a day in advance, 
which he would have to take tomorrow. He 
knows that I am "onto his curves," as the base- 
ball boys say, so we get along finely and always 
trade as the train begins to move and he realizes 
that it is now or never. _ 

From the river and from wells dug in the val- 
ley irrigation makes this unusual fertility pos- 
sible, and the old-time well-sweep is everywhere, 
with' its long see- saw pole with a weight at one 
end and a bucket tied to the other. A ride of a 
mile on the horse-car is worth while. You will 
see what you see in almost every Mexican 
town, not a shade tree on the streets, and the 
brown, flat-roofed adobe houses without win- 
dows are anything but inviting. Of course 
there are fine churches, what town has not its 
Carmen and Merced and San Francisco ? And 
of course its plaza and band- stand, and Sun- 
days and every alternate evening in the week 
the government furnishes its citizens with music . 
Irapuato is an important junction for trains 
going* to the Pacific Coast, and is in the midst 
of a fertile valley that needs no Kile to enrich 
it, no augurs to propitiate the Cod of the har- 
vest, no winter, no summer, this is 1 fcopia. 

ving Irapuato and A i behind, we 

still follow the i erm » 1 iw:i its son ■ We 



In the Valley of the Laja. 87 

pass thousands and thousands of peons with 
their oxen plowing with a sharp stick, or treading 
out the grain on the harvest floor just as they did 
in Egypt three thousand years ago. Fat cattle 
and water-fowl and farms and landscape and 
shifting panorama give us an uncanny feeling 
that the thing is not real, that such a beautiful 
country is seen only in pictures, that some hal- 
lucination has taken hold upon us, so swiftly 
and charmingly do they change in their beauty. 
Were all of Mexico like the Vale of Lerma, it 
would be the fairest spot on earth. And then 
comes the sickening thought that the whole 
seven hundred miles of this paradise is in the 
possession of two or three dozen land owners 
that nothing on earth could prevail upon to sell 
to the small farmer. These land owners live 
either in Paris or Madrid, and support palaces 
in the old world from blood money of these debt- 
ridden Mexicans. More than that, they have 
had laws enacted to restrain their descendants 
from parting with the land, the rightful inheri- 
tance of the*Indians who till it on sufferance, and 
are thus made aliens in the land of their birth. 
In the distance is the fountain head of Kio 
Lerma, and now we see the snow cap of the Vol- 
can de Toluca, and at its base the beautiful city 
of Toluca, the capital of the state of Mex- 
ico, Here within three hours of the city of 
Mexico, are two of the grandest natural wonders 
on earth, the precipice of Ocoyocac and El Vol- 
can de Toluca. This city of twenty thousand 
inhabitants was built in 1533, and is upon the 
dividing line of the tropical country of tierra 
calient e and the mountainous tierra teniplada, 
so absolutely everything you have ever seen grow- 



88 Land Without Chimneys. 

ing, will grow here. Its altitude is sufficient for 
wheat which grows in British America, and the 
warm winds from the Pacific make an eternal 
tropical summer for everything else . The build- 
ings in the city are superior to most you have 
seen. The market-house with its pillars painted 
in Pompeiian colors is the finest in Mexico, and 
was once an exposition building. At the station 
vendors will offer you fruits and basket at such 
a price you wonder if they were stolen. Here 
too is a great market for baskets and bird cages, 
and the baskets are so closely woven they will 
hold water. 

Here is the Institute Liber ario, the Harvard 
College of Mexico. Here grows the coral tree 
whose graceful stem is six or seven feet high 
with pendant palm-shaped foliage, and crowned 
with vegetable coral of the deepest red, an exact 
counterpart of the Mediterranean article. Horse 
cars lead to the city along Calle Independencia, 
where stands a statue to Hidalgo et Libertador, 
and here the wealth of the Republic is displayed 
in its public buildings. Around the plaza is 
that universal arrangement of huge arches 
called portales or arcades, which enclose the 
sidewalk and support the second story. The 
average height is twelve or fifteen feet, and 
besides being a sidewalk, it is also used for 
vendors' booths. Here are sold lace work and 
drawn work and feather work and carved work 
and onyx and souvenirs of all kinds. 

Here is shown the fine residence of a r ch 
haciendado who was once a great patron of the 
bull-ring and furnished many a toro bravo for 
the ring, and when the noble animals entered 
the arena with his colors dangling from their 



In the Valley ot the Laja. 



89 



pjrcks, the very wails shook with the loud huzzas. 
Qiiee upon a time a famous hull fought his way 
hack to life. The lances of the picadores broke 
and he killed all the horses. The banderilleros 
could not place the darts so he could not shake 
them from his shaggy neck, and the matadores 
lost their reputation and were hissed from the 
ring, because they could not place the sword. 
Here the old kaciendado begged the president 
to not permit him to be lassoed and assassinated, 
but to give him his freedom. This was granted, 
and many years afterward when he died his 
skin was stuffed to adorn his master's banquet 

hall. 

Behind the city is the volcano, which can be 
explored in two days. The height is 16,156 feet 
and the top is no more than ten feet wideband 
the crater contains a fathomless lake with a 
whirl-pool in the center. Standing here amid 
the eternal snows the earth is spread before you 
as is denied in any other part of the world. 
Three miles up in the air you stand and in the 
west you see the Pacific Ocean; across the Sierra 
Madres appear the snow-white top of Volcan 
Popocatepetl (smoking mountain) 17,685 feet 
high; Volcan Ixtaccihuatl (white woman) 15,714 
feet high; Citlatepetl(mount of the star) 17,664 
feet high; Nauchampatapetl (square rock) and 
Pirote'e Chest, peak answering peak, and still 
through the azure vista beyond lie the blue 
waters of the Mexican Gulf. Toluca is the 
fourth highest mountain in Mexico, being over- 
topped by Orizaba and the two named above. 
Itfis from these eternal reservoirs that the cities 
get their supplies of ice, and any day the Indians 
laden with their chilly burden descend among 



90 



Land Without Chimneys. 



the human mozaics to furnish the American bar- 
rooms with their sine qua non at ten cents a 
pound. 

Of course the usual churches and fine paintings 
must be seen, so we visit Tercer Orden, Carmen 
and Tecajec. And now we prepare to see a sight 
that has not a peer on the globe. Two engines 
are hitched to the train and we begin to climb 
the Sierra Madres. We stop at the little town 
of Ocoyocac, and in a half hour the train returns 
on the horse shoe curve one thousand perpen- 
dicular feet above the town. Not a bush nor a 
blade of grass interrupts the vision as we 
nervously look down one-fifth of a mile upon the 
toy-looking houses we could drop a stone upon. 
You instinctively hold your breath as we creep 
around this narrow trail blasted from the solid 
granite and marvel at the engineering that 
could ever dream of such possibilities. Far be- 
yond over the plain of Toluca is a panorama 
that will abide with you forever, but which you 
can never describe. We soon come to the mills 
of JaJalpa and pass under the stone aqueduct 
more than a hundred feet high which carries 
the pure mountain water to the thirsty city be- 
low. J J 

Every city near a mountain gets its water 
through these massive stone aqueducts that are 
built to last a thousand years. Up, up we 
slowly climb with our two locomotives until we 
reach Salazar and take a few minutes to raise 
steam for the final climb. At last w^ slop on 
the back-bone of the Sierras, at La Cima, (the 
summit) twenty-four miles from the capital, and 
11,000 feet above the sea. Here in the Torrid 
Zone among the clouds the frost is white upon 



In the Valley of the Laja. 91 

the rails, and the damp fog chills you to the 
ma-row. There behind us is a rushing mountain 
torrent, the source of the river Lerma, just 
starting on its seven hundred mile journey to 
the Pacific. Here just in front of the locomotive 
is a fretful little brook that breaks into a thou- 
sand cascades in its journey to the Mexican 
Gulf Forty miles to the south is a scene tliat 
defies description. A hundred miles to the 
south stand" those mighty sentinels of the 
beautiful Nahuatl Valley, Popocatapetl and 
Ixtaccihuatl, in that clear atmosphere almost in 
speaking distance. In the midst of the valley 
lie the silver lakes of Texcoco and Xochimilco 
large enough to mirror those lofty sentinels and 
reflect their perpetual robes of white to the 
rymphs and naiads in the azure depths below. 
Could these everlasting hills speak, what a 
tale they could unfold of the awful tragedies 
they have witnessed in this valley; of crimes 
and bloodshed and migrations and banishments; 
of nations who wrought while Phoenician com- 
merce was young; of cities built aud crumbled to 
dust; of opulence and power and intrigue ! Iney 
might tell us who carved the Calendar Stone, and 
who evolved its astronomical knowledge, and who 
wrote the hieroglyphics of Tula, and in what lan- 
guage are the "facade and tablet inscriptions 01 
Palenque and Uxmal, and, before the Aztecs 
whence came the Toltecs, and Tlascalans, and 
their forerunners the Tezcucans, who m turn 
were driven out by the Acolhuas in the inverse 
order by Tepanecs, and Chalcos, and Xocni- 
milcos, and who built the seven mysterious 
cities of Cibola, and the pyramid of Bholula, and 
the mounds and the pyramids of lampico, 



92 



Land Without Chimneys. 



and Panuco and the pyramids to the sun an 1 
moon at Teotihuacan, and why was the stately 
avenue of pillars left at ancient Mitla, and why, 
O Sphinx of the Valley! dost thou not reveal the 
secrets of the dead past whose unmultipliecl 
aeons are to thee as but an open "book? But the 
sphinx answered never a w T ord. My tears and 
eloquence turned to thin air in the morning frost, 
and after waiting a reasonable time for an 
answer, I thought of that old tale about Maho- 
met and the mountain, and that decided my 
course. I determined to go find out for myself, 
and as the engineer had dropped one engine 
behind he said if I was going with him I had 
better get a move on myself, so I set forth to 
solve the mysteries that have baffled the world 
in the Valley of Mexico. 




CHAPTER VI. 

THE YALE OF ANAHUAC. 

r~f~l HE time is £ our hundred years ago ; the 
place, the present site of the City of 
X Mexico. In its stead was Tenochtitlan. 
In this beautiful valley were four kingdoms, 
three aristocratic republics, a number of minor 
states and the independent monarchy of Yuca- 
tan. Of the four kingdoms in the valley, the 
Aztec or Mexican was chief, and dictated terms 
to the other three— Colhuacan, Tlascopan and 
Michoacan. The three republics were Tlaxcala, 
Cholula and Huexotzinco, the ancient enemies 
of the Aztecs, and with whose combined aid 
Cortez finally conquered them . 

On the shores of Lake Texcoco, the Athens of 
Mexico, stand Cortez and his band of pirates, 
gazing across the blue waters of the lake 
towards an island on its bosom, twenty-five 
miles away. Upon that island is a city, Tenoch- 
titlan, the Rome of Mexico, and the capital of 
the Aztecs, which the Spaniards called "the 
most beautiful city on earth." 

Upon the bosom of that lake float thousands 
of boats, and connecting the city to the main- 
land are two mighty causeways, guarded by 
drawbridges and portcullis. According to Span- 
ish authority, within that city were two thous- 



94 Land Without Chimneys. 

and temples, one hundred palaces and a thousand 
sumptuous dwellings and hanging gardens, aque- 
ducts and irrigating canals, sculpture and 
architecture, an elaborate system of religion 
and philosophy, a priesthood, a written language 
by means of ideographic paintings, artistic 
jewelers and a hundred other elements of civili- 
zation that have since been swept away by the 
bigoted Spaniards as the dewdrops before the 
sirocco. 

Within the great plaza there arose a mighty 
temple, the teocalli, erected to the war-god 
Huitziloptchli. This temple was a truncated 
pyramid, whose base was three hundred and 
eight feet each way, and whose height was one 
hundred feet, and was reached by a spiral stair- 
way passing four times around. Five thousand 
priests officiated in this temple, and on its sum- 
mit was a block of jasper, the sacrificial stone, 
which is now in the national museum. Upon 
this stone were sacrificed daily, human victims 
taken in war, and offered to appease the war- 
god who had made them successful against their 
enemies, and twenty thousand victims a year had 
their hearts cut out by the priests and laid 
smoking on this altar. 

Each morning as the sun rose behind Fopo- 
catapetl, the huge drum of serpent sldns re- 
sounded, the white-robed priests with their wild 
minstrelsy wound slowly round the pyramid in 
sight of every inhabitant in the city, and, ar- 
riving at the top, turned their faces to the 
rising sun, stretched their victims across the 
convex surface of the sacrificial stone, tore the 
palpitating hearts from the writhing bodies, 
and, having first offered them to the sun, laid 



The Vale of Anahuac. 95 

them smoking upon the altar and hurled the 
bodies down the sides of the pyramid. 

Before the altar in the sanctuary stood the 
colossal image of Huitziloptchli, or Mexitle the 
"left-handed warrior, "the tutelary deity and war- 
god of the Aztecs. In his right hand he wielded 
a bow, and in his left a bunch of golden arrows 
to denote their victories. Around his waist 
were the huge folds of a serpent, consisting of 
pearls and precious stones, and the same orna- 
ments were sprinkled all over his body. Upon 
the left foot were the feathers of a hum- 
ming bird whose name the dread deity bore. 
Around his neck was suspended a chain of alter- 
nate gold and silver hearts, to denote the 
sacrifice in which he most delighted. 

The invisible God , the Cause of Causes, was 
represented by no image and was confined by no 
temple. The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated 
to a milder deity who stood next to God. This 
was Tezcatlipoca, the creator of the world. His 
image was represented by a young man, richly 
garnished with gold ornaments and holding a 
shield, burnished like a mirror, and in it he saw 
reflected the doings of the world. In a golden 
platter he received the bleeding hearts of the 
sacrifice as his offering. Before these altars 
burn perpetual fires, attended by Vestal Virgins 
who .took their training in the temple, and 
whose heads were the price of unchastity. At 
the birth of a female child, its parents dedicated 
it to the service of some divinity, and Tepant- 
lohuatzin, the superior general of that district, 
took charge of her education. Two months 
after birth she was taken to the temple, and a 
passion flower, a small censer and a little in- 



96 Land Without Chimneys. 

cense were placed in her hand as a symbol of 
her future occupation. At five years of age she 
was placed in the seminary to learn the intri- 
cacies of the religion, and those who took the 
vow bad to sacrifice their hair. 

Boys dedicated to the juries thood were conse- 
crated to Quetzalcoatl, god of the air. At two 
3^ears of age, the superior made an incision in 
the breast, which was a sign of consecration. If 
a priest was guilty of unchastity, he was beaten 
to death, and his limbs were cut off and pre- 
sented to his successor as a warning. 

Thirty miles from the city was Teotihuacan, 
the hill of the gods, where stand the pyramid to 
Tonatfuh the sun, and one to Meztle, the moon. 
Here kings and priests were elected, ordained 
and buried, and hither flocked pilgrims from 
every direction to consult the oracles, to worship 
in the temples of the sun and moon, and to place 
sacrificial offerings on the altars of their deities. 

The priests were separated by several hier- 
archical degrees. The first of the supreme pon- 
tiffs bore the title of Teoteucli " Divine Lord," 
and the next was Hueitcopixqui " High Priest, " 
and was conferred upon those only of illustrious 
birth. These high priests were oracles, and war 
was never undertaken without consulting them. 
Then came the superior-general of the seminary, 
the steward of the sanctuary, the hymn-laureate 
of the feast, sacrificers, diviners and chanters. 

Four times a day were the priests required to 
incense the altars, and burn incense to the sun 
four times a day and five times at night. The 
perfumes were liquid styrax, (Liquidambar 
styraciflua), and copal resin (rhus copaUhm). 
The custom of human sacrifice, however, was 



The Vale of Anahuac. 97 

not always a trait of the Aztec. According to 
the picture-writing of the Aztecs, the race began 
its existence somewhere in the misty past, but 
when and where the deponent sayeth not. It 
was in 648 A.D., that seven of the Nahuatl 
tribes left their fatherland, and the other six 
tribes covered the valley with kingdoms, while 
the Aztecs in the year 1160, came, in their wander- 
ings, to the shores of the lakes, and stopped at 
different places, cultivating the soil and build- 
ing reed huts, but having no place to perma- 
nently locate their city. In 1216 they reached 
Tzompango, (place of bones) which city they 
afterwards gave the name of Mexicatl, their 
war-god, and changed their own name from 
Aztecs to Mexicans. 

Xolotl, king of the Chicimecs, seeing he had 
nothing to fear from them, permitted them to 
sojourn in his territory. Not long afterwards 
an Aztec priest carried off a daughter of a Chi- 
cimec general, and they were compelled to leave 
the country. They fled to the land of the 
Colhuas, where now stands the castle of Cha- 
pultepec. A few years afterwards the Colhuas 
demanded tribute, and, being unable to pay, the 
Colhuas reduced them to abject slavery. The 
Colhuas were soon afterwards conquered by the 
Xochimilcos, and in desperation called upon 
their Aztec slaves for assistance. Animated 
with the hope of their own freedom, the Aztecs 
completely conquered the Xochimilcos, and cele- 
brated their victory with human sacrifice. The 
Colhuas, alarmed at the prowess and future pos- 
sibilities of their slaves, gave them their liberty, 
and bade them depart from the country. Happy 
to regain their liberty, they once more set out 



98 Land Without Chimneys. 

and settled near the lakes, Tezcoco, Xochimilco, 
Chalco, and Xaltocan, from which they were 
never to depart. 

Tenoch, their chief, saw a cactus growing 
upon a rock in an island, and on the cactus an 
eagle perched, and holding in his talons a ser- 
pent. Thinking this a propitious sign they 
immediately founded a city (1325) and called 
it Tenochtitlan, "stone and cactus," and to 
this day the emblem and coat of arms of Mexico 
is the eagle on a cactus and holding a serpent 
in his talons. Here they erected a temple to 
their war god and went out in search of a vic- 
tim to sacrifice to offer upon the altar. The 
only animal found was a Colhuan Indian, and, 
recognizing in him only one of their old 
oppressors, they tore out his heart and offered 
it upon the altar. This led to a war of retal- 
iation and expiation which for two hundred 
years stained the new capital with blood. 

Shut in upon the island, and cut off from the 
mainland by their enemies, the Aztecs, having 
no land to cultivate, no textures to make clothing, 
went naked and ate fish and aquatic plants. 
In their extremity they made rafts and floored 
them with reeds, and dug up the mud from the 
lake and spread it upon the reeds and began the 
cultivation of flowers and the necessities of life 
upon these chinampas or floating gardens, which 
are to be seen to this day. Towed by his canoe, 
the Aztec gardener could move his farm when- 
ever a quarrelsome neighbor made life a burden. 

That was six hundred years ago, when the 
Mexican nation was small, but they soon outgrew 
the confines of the island, and, driven to desper- 
ation, resolved to conquer the mainland. 



; 



The Vale of Anahuac. 99 

In 1357 there were thirty powerful cities in the 
valley, united by a sort of feudal bond, each 
striving to get the mastery, which was finally 
gained by' the Colhuas. The Mexicans now 
elected a warrior king, Huitzilihuitl " feather of 
the humming bird," who was unmarried. Being 
a politician, he went to Azcapozalco, (now a 
suburb of the capital) the capital of the Tepa- 
necs, and asked the king of the Tepanecs for 
his daughter in marriage, and the formation of 
an offensive and defensive alliance. This the 
Tepanec king was glad to do, as he knew the 
fighting quality of the Mexican. No sooner 
was this accomplished than the Mexican king 
went to the principal chiefs in the valley and 
married into all their families, and the Aztec 
supremacy had its birth. 

Released from the islands, the Mexicans 
secured cotton cloth for their naked bodies, and 
carried on a rapid commerce. In 1427, the 
Mexicans won a naval battle over their enemies 
on lake Chalco, and built the great causeway 
across the lake as a military road to Tlacotalpam 
which exists today. Then they resolved to 
conquer the city of Azcapozalco, the capital of 
the Tepanecs, and to do so allied them- 
selves with the Acolhuas in 1428, and in a battle 
which lasted two days the Mexicans completely 
subjugated the Tepanecs, and made them allies, 
subject to the order of their masters. 

Itzacoatl "The Great " was king and died in 
1440, having served his country thirty years as 
a general and thirteen as king. His nephew 
Montezuma I. succeeded him. In 1449 the city 
was swept by a flood, and he built an immense 
dike nine miles long to protect the city from the 



100 Land Without Chimneys. 

lake This dike at the present day is called 
Albarredo Vieja, He also had his portrait 
sculptured on the rocks at Chap ul tepee. Monte- 
zuma I. was the ablest of the Aztec kings and 
built and fortified the outposts of the city and 
died in 1469 after a reign of twenty years. 

It had become a custom for each king to prove 
his right to be king by conquering his enemies 
and bringing the prisoners home to be sacrificed 
at his coronation. This was to make and keep 
the young men as warriors. Axayaeatl was 
the sixth king and he immediately set out 
against the kingdom of Tehuantepec to capture 
prisoners for his coronation sacrifice. He 
added their territory to his own and returned 
home laden with spoil, and had his portrait 
sculptured on the rock of Chapultepec by the 
side of Montezuma I. He died in 1481 and his 
son Tizoc succeeded. In his short reign of five 
years, he conquered fourteen cities and built 
more temples in the capital. Ahuitzotl was his 
successor, and immediately began work on the 
great temple begun in previous years. He began 
war to get victims for his coronation, which ne 
postponed till the temple should be completed, 
which was four years. When the dedication 
day arrived, festivities lasted four days, and 
fifteen thousand prisoners were sacrificed upon 
the altar of the war god. This king extended 
the Mexican empire to its present limits and 
died in 1502. He was liberal, and when he re- 
ceived tribute from his vassal states, he called the 
people together and distributed it among them. 
To his soldiers he gave bars of gold and silver, 
and precious stones. 

His successor was Montezuma II. whom Oortez 



The Vale of Anahuac. 101 

so foully murdered in later years. Montezuma 
was an oriental despot, and he made his capital 
the fairest city in the new world. His prede- 
cessors had guaranteed the integrity of their 
island city hy every means in their power. The 
temple occupied the great place now covered by 
the Cathedral and Plaza Mayor. It was sur- 
rounded by a wall of stone and lime, ornamented 
by figures of serpents raised in relief which had 
-the name of cotepantla, wall of serpents. This 
quadrangled wall was pierced with huge battle- 
mented gateways, opening upon the four 
principal streets of the city. Over these gates 
were arsenals, and within the walls were barracks 
of thousands of soldiers. 

Throughout the city were canals by the side 
of the streets in this new world Venice, so that 
canoes from their trading excursions could tra- 
verse any part of the city. Great military 
causeways led to the mainland across the lakes, 
and were guarded by drawbridges, to shut the 
enemy out or shut themselves in. The city could 
not be entered by any other way than these 
causeways. The southern one was called Izta- 
palapan and was seven miles long. The northern 
one was Tepejecac, three miles long, which now 
leads to Guadalupe. The other two were 
Tlacopam and Chapultepec and were each two 
miles long. They were broad enough to allow 
ten men abreast on horseback, and are all in 
use today. The city was nine miles in circum- 
ference and was guarded at every point. 

No sooner was Montezuma elected, than he 
waged war upon the Otomites to get victims for 
his inaugural, and returned with five thousand 
prisoners which were promptly slaughtered 



102 Land Without Chimneys. 

to the war-god, and then he became a very 
tyrant. He immediately dismissed all ordinary 
servants, and compelled six hundred princes of 
the royal blood in his conquered provinces to be 
hrs servants, and they had to approach him bare- 
footed and in common apparel. On the streets 
his subjects must close their eyes when he passed 
and not look upon his dazzling greatness. He 
drank from gold vessels and no vessel was ever 
used the second time. Swift runners by relays, 
brought him fresh fish and fruits each day from 
the gulf, a distance of two hundred miles. A 
thousand women were in his harem, and when 
a favorite prince deserved a favor, he made him 
a present of one of his houris. 

Menageries and aviaries, representing all the 
birds and animals of his kingdom from New 
Mexico to Guatemala, were provided for, and fed 
daily with the food each was accustomed to. In 
the midst of his extravagances, Cortez appeared 
on the other side of the lake with a hundred 
and fifty thousand Indian allies of the valley, 
who were only too anxious to see their ancient 
enemy humbled. 

Montezuma was the only Aztec king who was 
no soldier. He allowed the crafty Spaniards to 
fill his capital, and to buy their departure, filled 
their room to the ceiling with gold and silver, 
which only whetted the appetites of the treas- 
ure-seekers and they asked for more. Monte- 
zuma was treacherously imprisoned and was 
afterwards murdered by Cortez, then the Mexi- 
cans rose in their might on that terrible July 
night in 1520 and drove them from the city, and 
Guatemotzin was made king. He was a soldier 
from the old stock, and had he been king at 



The Vale of Anahuac. 103 

first, the Spaniards would never have set foot in 
Tenochtitlan. He immediately put the city in 
defense for the return of the Spaniards. Mean- 
while Cortez built a fleet of boats for the lake 
and got men and cannon from Cuba, and spent 
a year in organizing the disaffected Indians in 
the valley against their ancient enemy. 

The next year, in May 1521, he appeared 
again with Indians from every nation in the 
valley, according to the exaggerated Spanish 
authority, five hundred and twenty thousand 
men, and laid siege to the city by land and by 
water, for three months, and then occurred a 
scene that has never been exceeded in history 
for bravery. 

The Mexicans were born warriors to a man. 
The besieging army was armed with cannon and 
muskets and sword and horse, and was clad in 
steel coats of mail, yet for three months there 
were daily hand-to-hand combats, where Mexi- 
cans fought with short obsidian knives 
against the blades of Toledo. The great city, 
nine miles in circumference, was filled with people 
to the brim, their food supply cut off, the aque- 
duct which brought them fresh water from 
Chapul tepee across the lake, destroyed; 
forced to drink the brackish salt water from the 
lake, and to eat the bark and roots from trees, 
yet they asked no quarter. Mothers would sit 
and see their starved children die at their 
breasts, and then ravenously devour their dead 
bodies. Men wounded unto death, would still 
hurl defiance at the invaders when too weak to 
hurl their weapons. 

Cortez had succeeded so well in his blockade 
that all the timorous nations in the valley, like 



104 Land Without Chimneys. 

wolves around a wounded bison, severed their 
allegiance to the Aztec king and flocked to the 
Spaniards, till he had, by his own figures, nearly 
half a million men around the doomed city. He 
sent embassadors to Guatemotzin to surrender, 
as resistance was hopeless. Guatemotzin ordered 
the messengers to be sacrificed. Then Cortez 
ordered his men to tear the city down as they 
went os every house contained Mexican war- 
riors. For days they fought and destroyed. 
The Mexicans resisted every inch of the ground, 
and when a Spaniard was captured, would take 
him to the temple and sacrifice him in full view 
of the Spanish army. The city was reeking 
with the unburied dead, and the Mexicans were 
eating the flesh of their comrades, but they 
asked no quarter. Cortez hated to destroy so 
beautiful a city, and after twelve days of fight- 
ing and seven-eighths of the houses had been de- 
stroyed and the canals filled with the rubbish, 
he sent another commission to treat with Guate- 
motzin « ' Tell Malinche the Aztecs are men and 
not children," was his answer. Thus angered, 
Cortez turned his savage Indian allies upon the 
starving emaciated Mexicans, and butchered 
forty thousand more that night before they 
stopped to rest, and then waited till morning 
and sent another embassy to the proud king. 
" Tell Malinche I am prepared to die where 1 
am " was all his answer; and the stench and 
steam from the putrifying bodies was terrible, 
but no man, woman or child begged for mercy, 
so Cortez ordered the destruction of the rest oi 
the city. All day long they tore down walls 
upon weak and dead and dying Mexicans, but 
met defiance from everyone like a wounded tiger, 



The Vale of Anahuac. 105 

tracked to his lair by the trailing huntsman. 
To the Indian allies they would say: "Aye, 
destroy, but the more you tear down the more 
you will have to build up. If we conquer, we 
will make you rebuild; if the white man conquer, 
he will make you rebuild;" and still the destruc- 
tion went on. 

The Mexicans had stripped the bark from all 
the trees and had dug up the the roots and eaten 
them, and were still eating their dead compan- 
ions and drinking salt water, but not one asked 
for quarter or begged for mercy. All the houses 
had been destroyed but a small cluster which 
were still filled by dying Mexicans. The Span- 
iards and Indians were wading in mire caused 
by the pools of blood, and closed upon the last 
remaining Mexicans . Thirteen days of slaughter 
and starvation had reduced them to skeletons, 
but they hurled stones with their weak arms at 
their enemies. As their enemies closed upon 
them, many plunged into the canal to commit 
suicide. Twenty Spaniards closed around Guate- 
motzin and the brave king with buckler and 
sword stood to receive them all. His subjects 
begged the conquerors to spare his life. His only 
remark was that he hoped they would spare his 
wife and child. When he was taken before 
Cortez, he proudly walked up to him and said: 
" Malinche, I have done all a brave man can do, 
now do what you will." Then touching a knife 
in the belt of Cortez, he said: "You had better 
use that on me." Cortez afterwards tortured 
him to make him disclose his wealth and then 
murdered him. 

Of all that mighty host, not one had proved a 
traitor or begged for mercy, or acted a coward. 



106 



Land Without Chimneys. 



They had lived by the sword and died by it 
without a murmur. Probably thirty thousand 
were left alive on that last day, too weak to 
fight, and not quite dead from hunger, and that 
was all that was left of the great Mexican Em- 
pire. Of the beautiful dream city, not one stone 
was left above another and today , only the four 
causeways are left in the city of Mexico that 
was a part of Tenochtitlan. 

11 Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand 
Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe." 

The siege of the city of Tenochtitlan lasted 
seventy five days. 







Ill" CHAPTER VII. 

~ " THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 

WHERE stood the ancient pyramid 
and temple to the war-god in Tenoch- 
titlan, today stands the great 
Cathedral facing the Plaza Mayor in the City of 
Mexico. Where stood Montezuma's palace is now 
the National Palace; where was Montezuma's 
treasure-house are now the Post-office and Na- 
tional Museum, with Montezuma's shield, the 
sacrificial stone from the ancient temple, and a 
thousand gods and idols inscribed in the ancient 
Aztec and Toltec languages. Chapultepec, 
which was used as Montezuma's summer-house, 
is still used as the "White House " of Mexico. 
Montezuma's favorite cypress tree, which meas- 
ures fifty feet in circumference, is as green to- 
day as any tree in the beautiful park of Cha- 
pultepec, and nowhere outside the pages of the 
Arabian Nights is there such an enchanting, 
living story as can be seea every day in the City 
of Mexico. 

Unless you touched with your own hand, and 
saw with your own eyes, the very elements of 
this strange, fascinating history, you might 
doubt your reason and pronounce the whole 
story a figment of the imagination ; but here is 
history personified. 

107 



108 Land Without Chimneys. 

Let us begin with the great Cathedral, the 
center-piece of Mexico and its past. Here on 
this spot stood the ancient temple on the top of 
the lofty pyramid, down whose bloody sides 
flowed the blood of a hundred and thirty 
thousand human sacrifices, and not two hundred 
yards from here, in the museum, you can put 
your hand upon the sacrificial stone that bore 
witness to every one. Here in front of this idol, 
an altar received the reeking hearts, torn with 
obsidian knives from the breasts of that dead 
army, and there at your back stand both the 
hideous god that exacted this sacrifice, and the 
blood-stained porphyritic altar itself. 

Here is no room for doubt. The museum, or 
those in other lands, contain all that history 
has told us of, and they were dug from the ruins 
when the foundation of the cathedral was laid. 
The first church on the site of the pyramid was 
completed in 1523, but the present cathedral 
was not completed till 1573. The roof was put 
on in 1623, three years after the first mass was 
said, and it was forty-five years afterwards 
before it was dedicated. The towers were com- 
pleted at a cost of $200,000 in 1791, two hundred 
and eighteen years after the foundations were 
laid. With the cheap and gratuitous labor with 
which it was built, its actual cost will never be 
known, but was in the millions. The length is 387 
feet; width, 177 feet, and height 179 feet. The 
towers are 203^ feet, and built of cut stone, and 
the roof of brick tiles. Humboldt said that the 
view from the towers is the finest in the world. 
The group of forty or fifty bells in the towers 
are the finest in this country, but they are not 
set in chimes. The largest is the Santa Maria 




(IHRCH OF SAN AUGUSTIN 



The Valley of Mexico. 109 

cle Guadalupe, nineteen feet high and cost 
$10,000. It is next to the big Russian bell in 
the Kremlin. The second in .size is the Dona 
Maria in the eastern tower. When these bells 
strike the hour of noon, every head in the street 
is bared. The interior of the cathedral is in the 
shape of a Latin cross. Ninety quadruple pil- 
1 ars, each thirty-five feet in circumference sup- 
port the roof. 

The vaulted roof with its rich decorations, 
massive altars of intricate carvings, the choir 
and organ, are grand beyond description. There 
are seven chapels on each side, separated by 
carved railings and gratings. The choir and 
main altar are enclosed by a massive railing of 
gold, silver and copper, valued at one million 
dollars. There are five naves and six altars; 
the altar of Los Reyes (the Kings) is the finest. 
Beneath it are the heads of Hidalgo, Allende, 
Jiminez and Aldama, brought here with great 
pomp and ceremony after the war of Inde- 
pendence had been fought and won. In the 
chapel of San Felipe de Jesus are the remains of 
Augustin Yturbide, El Libertador, the first 
Emperor of Mexico. The Chapel of San Pedro 
contains the remains of the first Archbishop of 
Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, and one of 
the characters of early Mexican history, Gregorio 
Lopez, the reputed son of Philip II. of Spain. 

A number of fine paintings hang upon the 
wall, a genuine Murillo and a Michael Angelo. 
Those in the dome represent the Assumption of 
the Virgin. Over the stalls is the Immaculate 
Conception, by Juan Carreo. Near the choir 
and Altar of Pardon are two paintings by La 
Sumaya, the only examples by a woman. In 



110 Land Without Chimneys. 

La Capilla de las Reliquias are twelve pictures 
of the Holy Martyrs by Hrrrera. The Sacmty 
walls are covered by the great pictures of The 
Entry into Jerusalem, The Glory of St, Michael, 
The Immaculate Conception, The Assumption, 
The Triumph of the Sacrament and The Catholic 
Church, by Christobal de Yillolpando and Juan 
Carreo. In another room may be found The Last 
Supper and The Triumph of Faith, by Jose Alei- 
bar, and the portraits of all the Archbishops. In 
the'chapter Room are three of the best, John of 
Austria imploring the Virgin at Lepanto, and a 
Virgin, by Cortona, and the Virgin of Bethle- 
hem, by Murillo. There are other paintings 
whose number is legion, and would require a 
book to describe them all. 

The High Altar was once the richest in the 
world, but has been many times plundered in 
the many revolutions, yet still holds much of 
its former magnificence. The solid gold candle- 
stick, heavier than one man could lift, the statue 
of the Assumption made of solid gold and inlaid 
with rubies, diamonds and precious stones worth 
a million dollars, and many other costly things 
have been plundered, and still it is doubtless 
decorated more eostly than any other church in 
America. It was from the tower of the pyramid 
in the same place that Montezuma pointed out 
to Cortez the beauties of the city and valley. 

The group of churches about the Cathedral, 
but not a part of it, is interesting. La Capilla 
de las Animas (tic Chapel of Souls) whore 
masses are said for the souls in Purgatory, is in 
the rear. El Segario Metripolitano is m the 
east and was the first parish chureh in 
Mexico. Its foundations wciv laid in 1521, and 



The Valley of Mexico. Ill 

it is now one of the most beautiful churches in 
Mexico. Its rich facades and decorations are 
superb. La Capilla de La Soledad is between 
this and the cathedral and near by is the parish 
church of San Pablo. 

Four squares north is Santa Domingo, the 
house of the Spanish Inquisition, now used as a 
medical college. Near the south end of the 
same plaza is a fountain marking the spot where 
the eagle came down in 1325, and picked up the 
snake and lighted on the cactus as is now seen 
in Mexico's coat of arms. One square west of 
the Alameda is the church of San Hipolito of the 
Martyrs, built on the spot where so many 
Spaniards were slaughtered in the retreat on 
the night of noche triste, (dismal night) July 1, 
1520. 

In a corner of a wall at the juncture of a lit- 
tle side street is a curious tablet, showing in 
relief an eagle carrying an Indian in its talons. 
The inscription in the medallion above asserts : 
' ' So great was the slaughter of the Spaniards 
at this point by the Aztecs, July 1, 1520, called 
for this reason Noche Triste, that having in the 
following year triumphantly re-entered the city, 
the victors resolved to build a chapel here, dedi- 
cated to San Hipolito, because the capture of 
the city occurred on that Saint's day." 

The City of Mexico has 375,000 inhabitants 
and hundreds of churches worth a king's ransom, 
and they are still being enriched, and by whom? 
The paupers ! The more ignorant a person is, 
the more gullible, and thesp well-groomed priests, 
by keeping the people ignorant, play upon their 
credulity. In the Chapel of Lost Souls, where 
prayers are said for souls in Purgatory, a priest 



112 Land Without Chimneys. 

named Concha carried on this farce until he was 
eighty-seven years old. The cheapest mass 
even for the paupers is one dollar, and the rich 
are squeezed for all they are worth. Father 
Concha during his lifetime celebrated forty-five 
thousand masses at so much a say, which must 
have netted him a million dollars ! No priest 
can celebrate more than one mass a day and two 
on Sunday, which makes about four hundred 
and fifty in a year. Suppose he accepts two 
hundred dollars from two hundred poor people 
at a dollar a mass, and accepts five hundred 
dollars from the wealthy ; he accepts more money 
than he can legally earn in a year. Does he 
return that money? Not much. And how is 
the poor deluded creature to ever know that the 
prayer he paid for will ever be said, to help the 
late departed friend in Purgatory? He has 
absolute faith in the process, and it never 
occurs to him to figure out the possibility of his 
particular prayer being laid upon the shelf on 
account of press of business. 

Most priests make engagements or "inten- 
tions" for more masses than they can perform, 
and if he is honest, he will sell his surplus to a 
less favored brother priest with few ' \ briefs ' ' at 
a handsome profit. Technically they are sup- 
posed to do that, but who ever knew a priest to 
do so? 

O no, he knows a good thing when he sees it 
and the "dear people" will never know the 
whole thing is a humbug. To be sure, when 
the priest finds a tough case he will charge a 
good round sum to pray him out of Purgatory, 
and he usually collects from Mr. T. C. while he 



The Valley of Mexico. 113 

is alive and in good health, clothed and in his 
right mind. 

Reprobate sinners who had a tough time on 
earth and no hopes for better in the future, 
generally fix the future all right with the padre 
before they start to the house-warming. Now 
these good fathers do not believe a word of the 
doctrine they preach, because they are all well 
educated, but they teach it to the people and 
threaten with excommunication if they do not 
find the shekels, so the poor beggars will go 
naked to find their assessment. 

And not only in Mexico . I know a poor woman 
in Michigan who had to sell her only cow to 
raise a forty dollar assessment on a new church, 
and she did it under fear of a threat. I have 
had a poor cancer-eaten pilowa hold out her 
skinny hand to me and beg in the name of God 
for il un centavo, Senor," for her starving child- 
ren, and I have followed her back to the vestry 
to see her buy candles to burn before the altar 
of her chosen saint for value received from that 
defunct in times past. What does the priest 
care for the price of blood-money? Follow me 
to Jinks and see. 

Jinks is a licensed gambling house, that I 
was told on good authority paid the city twenty 
thousand dollars a year to run the faro bank, 
three card monte and the roulette wheel. In 
search after knowledge, I went to Jinks. It is 
as public as a theater and good order is preserved 
by policemen who sit to the closing hour and 
see the lights out. There at a late hour I saw 
barrels and barrels of silver dollars change hands. 
Neither bank drafts, paper money nor gold are 
accepted — only silver. 



114 Land Without Chimneys. 

Great brawny armed porters are there whose 
only duty is to carry boxes of silver from the 
vaults to the table, and from the table to the 
vaults, and at every table sit the clean faced 
priests who gamble with stacks of silver till 
the wee sma' hours, and tomorrow they will go 
among their parishioners and beg more money 
for Mother Church. They teach the people that 
absolute obedience to church behests can only 
be had in obedience without will and will with- 
out leason. 

Says Charles Lampriere: "The Mexican 
church, as a church, fills no mission of virtue, 
no mission of morality, no mission of mercy, no 
mission of charity. Virtue cannot exist in its 
pestiferous atmosphere. The cause of morality 
does not come within its practice. It knows no 
mercy and no emotion of charity ever nerves the 
stony heart of the priesthood, which, with an 
avarice that knows no limit, filches the last 
penny from the diseased and dying beggar, 
plunders the widows and orphans of their sub- 
stance as well as their virtue, and casts such a 
horoscope of horrors around the death-bed of 
the dying millionaire, that the poor, supersti- 
tious wretch is glad to purchase a chance for 
the safety of his soul in making the church the 
heir of his treasure." 

The reader may get the impression that I aai 
rather hard on the Catholic Church. Of the 
church in the United States I know but little, 
but when the reader has seen as much of the 
church as I saw in Mexico, he will at least be 
charitable to the writer. There in the Catholic 
Church the worship of Christ is hidden behind 
the theatricals of gaudily dressed priests, in- 



The Valley of Mexico. 115 

censed sanctuaries, ornamented images of the 
Virgin Mary, beautiful pictures, frescoed paint- 
ings, scapulars, medals, relics, and Agnus Deis, 
with their accompanying indulgences; and 
associated with most entrancing music, fragrant 
flowers, lighted candles, gorgeously dressed 
altars, surpliced acolytes, blessed ashes, holy 
water, consecrated wafers, holy oil and chrism. 

There are also the attractive ceremony of 
extreme unction, confession, satisfaction, besides 
the lenten feasts, the days of abstinence, genu- 
flections and stations of the cross, the crozier, 
and mitres, with the pontifical high mass, 
decorations, Latin liturgies, illuminated missals, 
gold and silver ciboriums, ostensoriums and 
chalice^, candelabras and vases, crosses and prec- 
ious stones, costly laces and fine linens, and the 
royal purple and the countless ceremonies which 
the blind- follower is not meant to understand. 

The bible and Christ are left out of the above 
enumeration, and never have I seen the bible in 
the hands of a Mexican layman. They are 
discouraged from owning a bible and are told 
that the priest will read and interpret it for 
them. What can a Mexican Indian get for his 
peace of soul and conscience out of the above 
enumeration, when probably five hundred words 
constitute his entire vocabulary and Latin is no 
part of it? All these insignia must he go 
through before he gets to Christ, and then he is 
told he is not worthy to go to Him, but must 
pray the- Holy Virgin and the Saints to inter- 
cede for him, else he will be eternally damned 
in the fires of Purgatory. Some particular 
Saint is chosen and assigned him, and he is 
assured that if he buy candles enough and burn 



116 Land Without Chimneys. 

them on the altar before that particular saint, 
the said saint will prosper his undertaking, and 
if it succeed, he must ever afterward give the 
credit to the saint. 

We were looking at the statue of the patriot, 
Hidalgo. My young Mexican friend said: 
' ' Hidalgo is our patron saint, he freed us from 
Spain; who is yours?" I said that I was a 
protestant and had no patron saint. "But," he 
said, "you must have one. We were subjects 
of Spain, and Hidalgo started the revolution that 
made us free. Therefore he was canonized and be- 
came our patron, and now we pray to him when 
we want favors. Your people were once slaves 
and got your freedom from the Americans, and 
you must have had a leader, else how could ten 
million slaves vanquish sixty million Ameri- 
cans ? " "But," I said: "you don't read 
American history. We did not get our freedom 
by a revolution, but by a civil war with Ameri- 
cans fighting on both sides." " But you were 
bound to have a leader, who was he? " "Oh!" 
I said, "it was Frederick Douglass." Abeam 
of satisfaction crossed his countenance as he 
handed me his hand: "We have both been in 
the toils and our good saints have made us free. 
Viva Douglass y Viva Hildalgo ! ' ' 

And so these poor deluded people are taught 
that every good and perfect thing cometh from 
above, but — through the hands of a saint or the 
Mother of God, and the only honor that re- 
dounds to Christ and his Father is the fact that 
they are members of the same family as the Holy 
Virgin. And so by a system of black-mail, 
more tyrannical than was the brigandage of 
twenty years ago, priest-ridden Mexico has built 



The Valley of Mexico. 117 

three magnificent piles of rock and marble and 
alabaster and chalcedony with the blood of 
widows and orphans. 

The world was shocked a few years ago be- 
cause Mtesa did the same thing in Africa. The 
only difference I see is that Mtesa killed his 
victims outright and mixed mortar with the 
blood of young girls, but here the process is a 
lingering torture of body and mind, and a life 
of abject poverty and misery for the living that 
overwhelms the stranger with its omnipres- 
ence. The Catholic faith has changed these 
people's ceremonies, but not their dogmas. The 
bowing to the statues and altars and images of 
the apostles, and the veneration of the shrines 
and the absolute faith in the incantations of the 
priests to the power they do not understand, is 
exactly what the Aztecs did in the temple of the 
war-god six hundred years ago. 

His public ceremony is changed and he no 
longer offers human sacrifice upon the altars, 
but there are Indians in Mexico today who will 
secretly celebrate their ancient festivals, and 
slyly hang wreaths of flowers upon the huge 
idols on exhibition in the City of Mexico. 

(W £ ,.' /""-St j W--=-.* .-'."j Vv'/T' -v * -,':■'-■■■■.'*-=, 







CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SHRINE OF GUADALUPE. 

THREE miles north of the City is the Hill 
of Tepeyacac. Leading from the city is 
the ancient causeway built across the lake 
to Tepeyacac before the Conquest. A street car 
now traverses this causeway to the town of 
Guadalupe and the famous Shrine of Our Lady 
of Guadalupe, the holiest fane in Mexico. The 
chain of mountains which bound the Valley of 
Mexico on the north here project into the valley 
and terminate in the Hill of Tepeyacac, in the 
Aztec language, " the termination." Before the 
Conquest, the Indians worshiped on this hill 
an idol called Tonantzin, "The Mother of the 
Gods." This deity seemed to have corresponded 
to the Cybele of classical antiquity. 

Father Florencia, who is the safest authority 
to follow on the apparition up to the 3 T ear 1088, 
when he published his book, "The Northern 
Star of Mexico," piously observes: — "The Vir- 
gin desired that her miraculous appearance 
should take place on this hill to dispossess the 
mother of false gods of the vain adoration ren- 
dered to the idol by the Indians^ and to show 
tin- latter that she alone vva i [he Mother of the 
true Godj and the true mother of men, and that 

lis 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 119 

where crime and idolatry and human sacrifice 
had abounded, grace should still more abound. 

THE LEGEND. 

Tradition says that an Indian neophyte, Juan 
Diego, was on his way on the morning of Satur- 
day, Dec. 9, 1531, to hear the Christian doctrine 
expounded by the Franciscans of Santiago Tlal- 
teloco. His home was atTolpetlac, and to reach 
the city he had to pass the Hill of Tepeyacac. 
On reaching the eastern side of the hill, he heard 
strains of music which seemed to him like the 
notes of a chorus of birds. He stood still to 
listen, and then beheld on the hillside the vision 
of a beautiful lady, surrounded by clouds, tinged 
with the colors of the rainbow. 

The lady called Juan, and as her appearance 
was both commanding and gracious he at once 
obeyed, and she addressed him as follows: 
•'Know, my son, that I am the Virgin Mary, 
mother of the true God. My will is that a 
temple should be built for me here on this spot, 
where you and all your race will be always able 
to find me and seek my aid in all your troubles. 
Go to the Bishop and in my name tell him what 
you have seen and heard. Tell him, too, that 
this is my wish, that a church be built for me 
here, and for so doing I will repay you with 
many graces." 

Juan sought the Bishop, who was Juan de 
Zumarraga, a Franciscan, the first and last 
Bishop of Mexico; for during the closing years 
of his life, the see was raised to the rank of 
archbishop. Juan Diego had some difficulty in 
gaining admission to the prelate's presence, and 
when he succeeded in delivering his message, 



120 Land Without Chimneys. 

small attention was paid to it, as the Bishop 
was inclined to treat the story as an hallucina- 
tion. Juan Diego returned that afternoon to 
his village, and passed the same spot where he 
had seen the vision in the morning. 

The lady was again there, and asked him how 
he had sped. He related the slight attention 
the Bishop had paid him, and asked the lady to 
be pleased to choose another messenger. But 
she replied that he was not to be dejected, but to 
return to the episcopal residence and deliver the 
message the following day. The next day was 
Sunday and Juan rose early, came in and 
heard mass at the parish church of Santiago 
Tlalteloco, and then repaired to the house of the 
Bishop and repeated his errand with great ear- 
nestness. This time the prelate paid more 
attention to the Indian's narrative, and told 
him if the lady appeared again, he was to ask 
her for a sign. At this Juan was dismissed and 
the Bishop sent two servants after him covertly, 
to observe what he did and whither he went. 
The servants did as they were bidden, following 
Juan along the same road that leads today from 
the City of Mexico to Tepeyacac, but when Juan 
reached the Hill, he became invisible to their 
eyes, and though they walked round and round 
the Hill they could not find him. Therefore they 
returned to the Bishop and told him that in 
their opinion Juan was an impostor and an 
embassador of the devil and not of the Virgin. 

But while Juan was invisible to them he was 
once more in converse with the lady, and told 
her the Bishop had commanded him to ask for a 
sign, so she told him to return on the following 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 121 

morning and she would give him a sign which 
would win him full credit for his mission. 

On reaching home Juan found his uncle, Juan 
Bernadino, dangerously sick. Instead of re- 
turning to the lady next day, he spent the time 
hunting medicine-men among his tribe, and in 
gathering simple remedies for a cure. But all 
day his uncle got steadily worse, and so the 
following morning, Dec. 12, 1531, he started for 
the Franciscan convent of Santiago Tlalteloco 
to fetch a confessor for his uncle. The road led 
by the Hill of Tepeyacac, and fearful of meeting 
the vision again, he determined to pass by 
another route. But this did not avail him, for 
near the place where the spring now bubbles up, 
he saw the vision for the fourth time. The 
lady did not seem at all offended at Juan for not 
coming on the day she bad commanded, but told 
him not to be anxious about his uncle, as at that 
moment he was sound and well again. She then 
spoke of the sign or token for the Bishop, and 
told Juan to climb to the top of the hill (where 
the small chapel now stands) and that there he 
should find a quantity of roses growing ; that he 
should gather them all, fill his tilma with them, 
and carry them to the Bishop. 

Juan knew well that December was not the 
time of year for roses, and besides that bare 
rock never produced flowers at any time of year, 
but he immediately did a3the lady told him, and 
found the spot aglow with the most beautiful 
roses blossoming. He gathered them one by 
one and immediately repaired to the Bishop's 
residence. Juan told him what had happened, 
and opened out his tilma. The flowers fell to 
the ground, when it was seen that a representa- 



122 Land Without Chimneys. 

tion of the vision had been miraculously painted 
on the coarse fabric of the tilnia. The Bishop 
fell on his knees and spent some time in prayer. 
He then untied the tilma from the Indian's neck, 
and placed it temporarily over the altar of his 
private oratory. 

Such is the tradition, believed by the majority, 
though not by all Mexican Catholics. I shall not 
treat of the legend theologically, but as a trav- 
eler interested in all traditions and monuments 
so abundant in this historic land. 

The apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe 
belongs not to that class of beliefs in the Catholic 
Communion which are articles of faith bind- 
ing on the conscience of all Catholics, but to 
those pious popular traditions which have re- 
ceived a more or less direct sanction from the 
ecclesiastical authorities, and which it is con- 
sidered improper in members of the Catholic 
Church to doubt or call in question, at least 
publicly. This may satisfy the curiosity of a 
number of people who profess no particular 
belief, but are anxious for impartial information. 

Bishop Zumarraga at once set to work to 
build a hermitage or small chapel at the foot of 
the hill of Tepeyacac for the reception of the 
miraculous painting, and, as Father Fiorencia 
observes, " Bis dat qui cito dat," the work was 
pushed so rapidly that the building was ready 
Dec. 26, 1531, fourteen days after the vision 
appeared on the tilma. The painting was trans- 
ported to the chapel with great pomp, and the 
occasion forms the subject of one of the wall 
paintings in the present basilica, executed by 
Father Gonzalo Carrasco, and to which allusion 
will be made in the description of the edifice. 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 123 

For ninety years the piety of the Mexicans was 
displayed towards the image in this small chapel. 
But such was the quantity of alms deposited by 
the worshipers, that enough money was soon 
available to erect a sumptuous shrine for the 
reception of the venerated image. This church 
was dedicated by Juan cle La Cerna, Archbishop 
of Mexico, November 1622. In this church the 
image was venerated 350 years, and is substan- 
tially the same as the present basilica in spite 
of external repairs and internal alterations. 

In 1629 occurred the great inundation in 
Mexico City, and it was determined by the 
Archbishop Francisco Manso y Zuniga and the 
Marquis de Ceralvo, to bring the image of the 
Virgin to the city to procure a subsidence of 
the waters. 

Quite a fleet of barges and gondolas, with the 
civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries on board, 
started for the sanctuary of Guadalupe, as it 
was not possible to reach it on foot on account 
of the inundation. The image on the tilma 
was taken on board the barge of the archbishop, 
which, as evening approached was lighted, as 
were the gondolas, with Chinese lanterns. 
Musicians played sacred music as the fleet moved 
over the placid waters. On arriving in the city, 
the image was placed in the archiepiscopal man- 
sion, whence, on the following day, it was 
carried to the Cathedral, where it remained 
four years, the inundation lasting that long. 
However^ the Mexicans assert that it was the 
intercession of the Virgin that caused the sub- 
sidence of the water after all. 

In 1666, the Dean of the Cathedral of Mexico, 
D, Francisco Siles, determined to collect the 



124 Land Without Chimneys. 

floating traditional evidence of the apparition 
in a clear and methodical form. Quite a num- 
ber of witnesses wero examined by the tribunal, 
composed of the following ecclesiastics : — Juan 
de Poblete, Juan de la Camara, Juan Deiz de la 
Barrera and Nicolas del Puerto. 

Canons Siles and Antonio de Gama went to 
the village of Cuantitlan, where Juan Diego was 
supposed to have been born, to lookup witnesses. 
Some of the witnesses examined were ovfr a 
hundred years old. All of the witnesses testified 
to having, in childhood, heard the tradition 
from their parents. It was then attempted on 
the strength of the evidence thus collected, to 
obtain the approval of Rome for the apparition, 
but the attempt was then unsuccessful. 

Cardinal Julio Rospillozi, who in 1667 was 
elected Pope under title of Clement IX., wrote 
in 1666 to Dr. Antonio de Peralta y Castaneda, 
of the Cathedral of Puebla, saying it would be 
impossible to obtain the countenance of Rome. 
He said that as the image seemed to be identical 
with the Immaculate Conception, it seemed 
superfluous to grant a special office for the 
festival of Guadalupe. Afterwards, being elected 
Pope, he granted some favors to this devotion. 

In 1740, Boturini obtained the papal authority 
for crowning the image, but his failure and 
subsequent disgrace are well known. In 1751, 
the Jesuit priest, Juan Francisco Lopez, was 
sent to Rome on a special mission, both to con- 
firm the choice of Mexico of the Virgin of 
Guadalupe as its special patron, and to obtain 
a special mass and office for the feast of the 12th 
of December. He took with him two copies of 
the image, said to have been made by the cele- 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 125 

brated artist Miguel Cabrera. Lopez performed 
his mission with great energy and success. He 
obtained an audience with the reigning Pope, 
Benedict XIV., showed him the copies and gained 
all his requests. When, in 1756, he returned to 
Mexico bearing the papal briefs, he was received 
with immense honors and rejoicings. 

_ To come to a later date, in 1886, the arch- 
bishops of Mexico, Michoacan and Guadalajara 
applied to the Pope for permission to crown the 
image. This privilege can be granted only by 
the Pope, and the crowning is theoretically 
done by him. Leo XIII. made favorable 
answer in February 1887, and in August 1894 
granted some additions to the office and 
lessons for the day. The ceremony of the coro- 
nation took place at last, Oct. 12, 1895, in the 
presence of thirty-seven Mexican, American, 
Canadian and other prelates,and a large concourse 
of the clergy and the most prominent citizens of 
Mexico. When the crown was raised to its 
position above the image, the congregation broke 
into loud acclamations. The crown itself is a 
miracle of the jeweler's art, and with its galaxy 
of gems — diamonds, rubies and sapphires — is 
worth a king's ransom. 

Early in 1887 Father Antonio Plancarte y 
Labastida, a nephew of the then archbishop of 
Mexico, prepared to carry out a long cherished 
design for the renovation and embellishment of 
the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. For 
this purpose, the image, after much opposition 
on the part of the Indians, was conveyed to the 
neighboring Church of Capuchinas, and the 
extensive plans were then initiated. The arch- 
itect first employed was Emilio Donde, but he 



126 Land Without Chimneys. 

was soon superceded by Juan Agea. At an 
early hour on the morning of Sept. 30, 1895, 
the image was carried back to the basilica, and 
the restored building was consecrated Oct. 1. 

The first impression on entering is an ensemble 
of gorgeous and harmonious coloring, and it is 
some time before the eye can rest on individual 
objects. Naturally the raised Pre sbyterium 
and High Altar claim attention. The Presby- 
terium is reached by four separate flights of 
twelve steps. It is paved with diamond slabs 
of white and black Carrara marble. The altar and 
reredos, the latter affecting the form of a frame 
for the painting of the Virgin, are severe and 
classical in design. The only material used is 
the finest Carrara marble known as 4 * Biano P.," 
and exquisitely wrought gilded bronze. All the 
marble of the altar is monolithic, and was ex- 
ecuted at Carrara by the sculptor Nicoli, the 
Mexican architects Juan Agea. and Salome Pina. 
All the bronze work is from Brussels. On either 
side of the altar is a figure kneeling in adoration ; 
that on the left, or Gospel side, is Bishop Zumar- 
raga, that on the Epistle side is Juan Diego, 
who is represented as making an offering of 
roses. Both are of Carrara marble. At the top 
of the reredos are three angels, representing the 
archdioceses of Mexico, Michoacan and Guada- 
lajara, which applied to Pope Leo XIII. for 
permission to crown the image. The central 
one holds out a crown of singularly pure and 
chaste design. Below them and immediately 
above the frame is a cherub in relief, holding 
the jeweled crown. The High Altar is double, 
there being slabs for the celebration of mass, 
both before and behind. Over the High Altar 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 127 

is a handsome Byzantine baldachin sustained by 
pillars of Scotch granite from Aberdeen, and the 
baldachin is surmounted by a gilded cross 
formed of roses. The rose occurs in all the 
decorations, as it is the symbol of the Virgin of 
Guadalupe. 

On the top of the front arch of the baldachin 
are the arms of Pope Leo XIII. and the apices 
of the other three arches are filled with the 
arms of the Archbishops of Mexico, Michoacan 
and Guadalajara. On the vault of the balda- 
chin, in Gothic letters are the Latin distiches, 
composed for the image by Pope Leo XIII. and 
which are as follows: — 

Mexicus heic populus mira sub Imagine gaudet 
Te colere, alma Parens, praesidioque frui 
Per te sic vigeatfelix, teque auspice, Christe 
Immotam servet Jirmior usque Jidem. 

Leo P. P. XIII. 

TRAN SLATED . 

" The Mexican people rejoice in worshiping 
Thee, Holy Mother, under this miraculous im- 
age, and in looking to Thee for protection 
may that people through Thee, flourish in hap- 
piness, and ever, under Thy auspices, grow 
stronger in the faith of Christ." 

The four angels of the baldachin between the 
arches are occupied with allegorical bronze stat- 
ues of the four cardinal virtues, Prudence, Jus- 
tice, Fortitude and Temperance. 

Underneath the High Altar is a crypt, the 
vaulted iron roof of which is capable of sustain- 
ing a weight of three hundred thousand pounds. 
This crypt contains four altars underneath the 
high altar, also urns or cinerariums for the re- 



128 Land Without Chimneys. 

ception of the thirty persons who contributed 
$5000 each to $150,000 for the High Altar. 

The railing around this altar is of solid silver, 
and weighs fifty-two thousand pounds, or 
twenfcy-six tons. Immediately in front of the 
High Altar, but below the Presbyterium is a 
kneeling marble statue of Mgr. Labastida y Da- 
valos, late archbishop of Mexico, and underneath 
the statue rests the ashes of his parents. His 
own are soon to be removed here. 

The vaults of the roof are painted blue with 
gold stars in relief. The stars are of cedar, 
gilded over and screwed into the roof. The ribs 
of the vaulting are beautifully decorated in the 
Byzantine style, and the dome is a rich mass of 
gilding festooned with pink roses. The several 
divisions of the dome are occupied alternately 
by frescoes of the Virgin of Guadalupe and of 
angels bearing scrolls. In each division is one 
of the poetical avocations in which the Catholics 
impetrate the Virgin, such as " Seat of Wis- 
dom, " " Mirror of Justice, " u Mystical Rose, ' ' 
"Ask for the Covenant," etc. The windows of 
the dome, of stained glass, were given by the 
College of the Sacret Heart of San Cosme. 

The most striking of the interior decorations 
are the fine large wall frescoes. The one on the 
right represents the conversion of the Indians 
through the Virgin of Guadalupe. Groups of 
friars are preaching and baptizing, while hover- 
ing in the air is the figure of the Virgin. This 
is by the artist Felipe S. Gutierrez. The next 
represents the image being carried to the small 
chapel, December 26, 1531. This is a brilliant 
piece of work, and reflects great credit upon the 
young artist, a young Jesuit priest, Fr. Gon- 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 129 

zalo Carrasco. The image is carried beneath a 
canopy, and attended by gorgeously arrayed 
priests and prelates. Then there are the friars 
and Indians and Spanish cavaliers, and acolytes 
bearing candles, flabelli, etc. In the lower 
.right-hand corner is represented the first miracle 
alleged to have been wrought by the Virgin of 
Guadalupe. The Indians, in honor of the pro- 
cession are letting off arrows, and one of them 
enters the neck of an Indian. His mother begs 
the procession to turn back, and as it passes her 
son, so goes the story, he is healed. 

On the western side, nearest the High Altar, 
is the fresco of the taking of evidence for the 
Apparition in 1066. This is by Ibarraran y 
Ponce. The next is by Felix Parra, and is 
called a gorgeous poem in color. It represents 
the period of " Matlazahuatl," the dread pesti- 
lence which devastated the city in 1737, when 
the Archbishop Antonio Bizarron y Equiarreta 
solemnly put the city under the protection of 
the Virgin and immediately the plague departed. 
In the foreground is an Indian stricken with the 
plague. The last freeco represents the presen- 
tation of a copy of the image to Pope Benedict 
XIV. The Pontiff is in the act of exclaiming: 
" JSTon fecit taliter omni NationiV Between the 
first two frescoes is a mural inscription in Latin : 
" The Mexican people, in honor of the Virgin of 
Guadalupe, who in old time appeared on the 
hill of Tepeyacac to Juan Diego, erected a holy 
temple, and with all piety venerated the ancient 
image. One of the most conspicuous in its cult, 
was the Archbishop Pelagio Antonio de Labas- 
tida y Davalos, a most munificent restorer of 
the Collegiate Church. J^ow at length, as all 



130 Land Without Chimneys. 

had wished, and as the Chapter of the Vatican 
Basilica had decreed in A. D. 1740, the famous 
image, with the sanction of the Supreme Pontiif , 
Leo XIII., was crowned with a diadem of gold, 
on the fourth day before the Ides of October 
1895, Prospero M. Alarcon being Archbishop of 
Mexico, to stand forever as a shield, the protec- 
tion and the honor of the Mexican people." 

The apse behind the High Altar is elaborately 
decorated and contains many mural paintings 
of popes and archbishops. In the apse is the 
chapel and family vault of Mr. Antonio de Mier 
y Celis. This chapel is a perfect gem' of the 
decorative art and is dedicated to St. Joseph. 
The crypt underneath is an exact reproduction 
of the Escorial at Madrid. The three stained 
glass windows are from Munich and cost $17,- 
000. There are in all, ten altars in the church, 
and its total cost is nearly four million dollars. 
During all the revolutions and political upheav- 
als in Mexico, the sanctity of Guadalupe has 
immured it from plunder; the most reckless free- 
booters forbearing to invade the hallowed 
ground of the Virgin. 

You leave this place weighed down with im- 
pressions of magnificence, wealth and beauty. 
Outside the door of this four million dollar 
church you step over a hundred naked, starving 
beggars, holding their skeleton fingers for cop- 
pers. One cent seems to be the regulation fee 
expected, and if you give a beggar five cents he 
returns four cents change. 

Near by is the government building in which 
the treaty of peace was signed between Mexico 
and the United States. Gaudalupe Hidalgo is 
what the treaty is called in history, out of pa- 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 131 

triotism for the memory of Hidalgo. By the 
little chapel is a geranium, plant in full bloom. 
Its stem is five inches in diameter, and the top 
is thirty feet in the air. I suppose the Virgin 
exercises an influence over it as with every 
thing else here. Across the little plazuela is 
another miracle attributed to the image. At 
the foot of the rocky hill where the vision ap- 
peared the last time, boils up a spring of water 
that is a veritable geyser. It is said to have 
appeared after the apparition had vanished. It 
is covered with a pavilion, Cap Mo del Pocito, 
and is about ten feet in diameter, and about the 
same from the curb to the water. The danger- 
ous pit is fenced in with an iron railing, and as 
you gaze into its chalybeate depths surging 
below, an attendant draws up a basin of water 
and passe? it to you with a wonderful narrative 
of its curative properties for unfruitful women, 
and the large number of such women who an- 
nually resort to it for relief with the Virgin's 
blessing. 

This is the Indian's Mecca, and on December 
12, all Indians make a pilgrimage here in honor 
of Juan Diego, the only Indian saint in the 
calendar. The encircling town of ten thousand 
devotees with a permanent residence here is an 
earnest of the strong hold it has upon them. 
It is said that whoever drinks from this miracu- 
lous spring is compelled to return again, no 
matter how far he may wander. And so I was 
impelled to drink of the vile smelling water with 
the hope that at some time it will carry me to 
Guadalupe again without the necessity of a yard 
and a half of railroad ticket which gets punched 
into fragments on a ninety day circular tour. 



132 Land Without Chimneys. 

I stayed the violent eruption which the medi- 
cated water threatened within, and turned to 
the broad stone steps that led to the top of the 
hill where Juan plucked the roses. The beauti- 
ful line of steps leads up the basaltic cliff to a 
height of a hundred and fifty feet, and where 
the roses grew is a little chapel, " La Capilla de 
Cerrita," crowning the summit of Tepeyacac. 
Though nearly four hundred years old, the 
chapel is in good repair, and is still the holiest 
shrine in Mexico. The entire walls are covered 
with pictures of the miraculous cures by the 
image. 

There is a picture of a man falling from a 
church steeple, and afterwards brought to life 
by the passage of the image, and a bull-fighter im- 
paled on the horns of the enraged bull, and a 
hundred similar scenes where the image had as- 
serted itself. 

It was worth much to see the adoration and 
utter abandon lavished upon this image. Pil- 
grims from eveiw where stretched themselves 
prone upon the floor, and the look of resignation 
said as plainly as the words could, " Now Lord 
lettest Thou Thy servant die in peace." 

I shook myself up to see if I could awaken a 
little devotion within myself, but the only feel- 
ing I had was borrowed from that little incident 
on Mount Carmel, when that rugged old spokes- 
man, Elijah, the Tashbite called down fire to 
consume the worshipers of Baal. 

The faithful looked up as I wandered among 
them with note-book and pencil. They did not 
speak, but that look would have filled three 
columns of close printed small pica type if 
translated, about the unregenerate heathen that 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 133 

did not bow to the s acred image nor cross him- 
self when he passed by the holy water. The 
scribe was there solely in pursuit of knowledge, 
and when he had all the little chapel contained, 
he stepped over the prostrated forms on the 
floor and passage-way and went out to see some 
more miracles performed by the Virgin. 

Ten steps from the door loomed up another 
miracle as big as life and almost as natural. 
This was the old stone sail' and ship's mast, and 
thereby hangs a tale, to wit, namely, as follows : 
"Once upon a time," as the story-books go, 
a very rich family owned a ship which was 
long over-due at Vera Cruz, so this family went 
to the Virgin, or to the image rather, and laid 
the case before it. They said the ship's cargo 
was worth almost its weight in Spanish doub- 
loons, and if she would bring that ship to port, 
they would make her an ex voto offering of the 
ship, if she would let them have the cargo. The 
image listened and concluded that the bargain 
was fair enough, so she let the ship come to 
port. True to their promise, the owner had 
the mast, sails and cordage brought across the 
Cordillera Mountains 265 miles to Guadalupe 
and set them up in front of the church and 
then encased the whole in stone just as you see 
it today, and if any one doubts that the Virgin 
saved the ship, why, " there stands the mast it- 
self to prove it." It is useless to argue against 
facts. A single look of interest draws a half dozen 
guides who want to explain all about the Virgin 
and the image. I give them enough money to 
get drunk on and die if they will leave me alone 
and tell me no more about the wonder. After 
they are gone I turn to the Campo Santo, just 



184 Land Without Chimneys. 

behind the chapel. This is the Westminster of 
Guadalupe, full to running over with illustrious 
pilgrims, bandits and all. 

At the barred gate I was met by a tall pirate 
who claimed my camera. I told him I had 
passed the custom-house with that box, and 
that there was nothing seditious in it but a 
half dozen exposures of his fellow-citizens, and 
from the scarcity of clothes they had on they 
were really exposed before I found them, and 
besides, I had a deed and title to that camera 
stretching all the way to Boston. He said that 
was all bueno, but he did not care a hot tamale 
about that, but he would swear by all the saints 
and the Virgin herself that I and my camera 
would part company before I entered that gate. 
"Why sir, don't you know that you stand on 
holy ground, right on the Hill of Tepeyacac it- 
self, and right in that gate is the tomb of Santa 
Anna?" I told him that was all bueno, too, but 
we had Santa Anna's wooden leg in the Smith- 
sonian Institution, and I was not afraid of any 
one-legged man hurting me, especially one that 
had been planted twenty-six years. And be- 
sides, I told him the treaty of Guadalupe Hi- 
dalgo was signed right here February 2, 1848, 
and if I remembered correctly the treaty ac- 
knowledged that he got licked, and we could 
lick him again and tie one hand behind our 
backs. I did not want to trouble the Virgin to 
bring this gate-keeper back to life, so I gave 
him my camera; 

Among the Indians of our country one can 
hardly ever get an Indian's picture; they think 
you can "hoodoo" them if you once get their 
picture. Perhaps they think the same here, for 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 135 

I have never found a Canipo Santo unguarded, 
and they all draw the line between me and my 
camera. 

I went in and saw that Santa Anna was still 
dead, and his grave was covered with the same 
wonderful roses that the Virgin ordered here 
four hundred years ago. Then I began to fig- 
ure out what right that old brigand had to 
be buried here on this holy hill. 

He was five times president of Mexico, four 
times Military Dictator, and was twice banished 
to the West Indies, "For his own and for his 
country's good." "Antonio Lopez de Santa 
Anna, February 21, 1798." So his birth-day 
just lacked one day of making him Father of 
his Country, but seven times with the reins of 
government in his hands, nearly qualified him 
to be step-father anyway. He ought to have 
come to the United States and entered politics. 

When the War of Independence began in 1821, 
he joined the Mexican forces under Iturbide, 
but quarreled with him the next year and put 
himself at the head of a new party, and seeing 
which was the winning side, he joined Guerrera 
and soon became Commander-in-chief of the 
army. He then overthrew Guerrera in favor of 
Bustamente, then overthrew Bustamente im fa- 
vor of Pedraza, and in 1833 he sat down on 
Pedraza and modestly made himself president. 

Then he told the dear people that it was time 
to elect a new president, and that there was on- 
ly one candidate, and the first two letters of his 
name were Santa Anna. Incidentally, he reminded 
the people that he had the army to back him. 

They say he was elected by a large majority, 
(so was Cromwell.) Having settled that little 



136 Land Without Chimneys. 

matter, he went over in Texas and chased the 
Texas army all over the state for two years, till 
he got it corraled in a bend of the San Jacinto 
River, and then sat down to supper, but during 
the night the Texan s broke out and to their great 
surprise captured Santa Anna himself. He 
never forgave the Texans for that. 

The Texans wanted to barbecue him just as 
he had done the Texans at the fall of the Ala- 
mo in San Antonio, and the massacre at Gali- 
ad, but General Sam Houston saved his neck. 
He went back home in disgrace and was ban- 
ished, but he would not stay banished. He 
came back and made himself president in 1846. 

When Texas entered the Union he started 
over to chase Texans again, but at the battle of 
Cerro Gordo, General Scott got his wooden leg 
and he had to give up the chase. When the 
French put Maximilian on the Mexican throne 
in 1861, Santa Anna was an exile in the West 
Indies. He wrote a letter of congratulation to 
Maximilian, and said, "If you want a man to 
wipe up the earth with General Juarez' army I 
am the man to do it." Maximilian declined 
with thanks. Then he wrote a letter to Juarez 
and said, "If you want a man to wipe up the 
earth with that French army, I am the man." 
Juarez declined with thanks. Santa Anna had 
his feelings hurt, so he came home, raised an 
army and licked both Maximilian and Juarez 
for snubbing him. In 1867, Mexico got too small 
for him, so he was asked to consider himself 
banished for an indefinite period. 

In 1871 he asked his country to let him come 
home to die, and the country graciously granted 
him the privilege and welcome, if he would 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 137 

promise to die. So he came home and met all 
the agreement and died, and here he is. 

His grave-stone had R. I. P. and the boy said 
it was, ' 'Let her rip, ' 'but a few had l 'perpituidad' ' 
which meant that they had paid their rent till 
the final resurrection. The others were, "Rest 
in Peace," for five years, and if the rent is not 
paid, the resurrection takes place immediately. 

At Saltillo, the cemetery has two heaps of 
grinning skulls and bones that will measure 
25,000 cubic feet of dead people who did not 
pay rent and were evicted. 

A hundred dollars will buy the little word 
"perpituidad"on your tombstone, which will pro- 
tect you till Gabriel sounds the final reveille. 

I went back to my gate-keeper and said: 
"Now my good. fellow, laying aside all jokes, 
what has Santa Anna done so noble as to give 
him a grave on this hill? " 

He said this hill was a regular boom in real 
estate and that all his renters paid gilt-edge 
prices for beds, and as S. A. had the shekels, 
he got the bed. " And sir, if you have got the 
rocks, you can get lodging here." 

I declined with thanks, and told him I al- 
ways carried a Coffin with me. 

The road from Mexico to Guadalupe is three 
miles long, and has twelve stone shrines to 
commemorate the stations of the cross. All the 
pilgrims venerate these shrines on the march to 
Guadalupe. When Maximilian was meeting 
with such cool reception by the Mexicans, he 
walked the whole distance barefooted, in Decem- 
ber, to win the good will of the Mexicans by 
apparent conformity to their customs. The Mex- 
icans took him down to Queretaro and shot him. 



138 Land Without Chimneys. 

I have gone thus minutely, and perhaps 
tediously, into the details of this legend to "find 
a moral and adorn the tale;" to expose the 
fraudulent practices and glaring deceit which 
the priest-hood has foisted upon the ignorant 
people. Whenever their hold upon the people 
seems to weaken, a cock-and-bull story like the 
one just told will awe the superstitious people 
by thousands to the rescue. Think of that 
humbug when the water was four years falling, 
and then the image getting the credit for it ! 

As a matter of fact, Mexico City was built 
upon an island only two feet higher than Lake 
Texcoco, a salt lake with no outlet, and both 
lake and city are in a crater, and all the water 
that falls in that forty mile valley must remain 
until evaporated, even though it takes four 
years to lower the height of a broken cloud-burst. 
After the water has evaporated to its usual level, 
why, the "Virgin lowered the water." 

Every priest in Mexico knows the geography 
of the valley and why the lake is salt, and why 
inundations take place even today in the prin- 
cipal streets of the city. In the light of this 
knowledge, their duping practices seem more 
reprehensible. Such is their hold, however, 
that since the church and state have been sep- 
arated by law, several revolutions have been 
threatened because the state has attempted to 
interdict some of the senseless customs of the 
fiestas. Even within the last six years, the 
state proposed to put restrictions upon some of 
the ceremonies of Guadalupe, and had to recall 
the proposition to prevent a revolution. 

It is encouraging to know that you never see 
an intelligent Mexican making a door-mat of 



The Shrine of Guadalupe. 139 

himself before these shrines. He knows it is 
not worship as well as the priest, but there are 
thousands who are yet in the dark and the only- 
hope of the priest-hood is continual ignorance of 
the masses, but education is weakening that 
every year. It is said that when an Indian 
earns two dollars, he gives one to the priest, 
forty-five cents for pulque, and supports his 
family with the remainder. As bad as that may 
look in print, I can say it is not far from an 
actual fact. Stand in front of that four million 
dollar church with all its useless finery, and 
then gaze at the thousands of beggars that 
crowd its steps and overflow to the street, who 
have to sit down to hide their nakedness and to 
better support their weak stomachs, and draw 
your own conclusion. And who ever heard of a 
Mexican church supporting a charity or raising 
a poor fund? Not I, and I have seen all of it. 
If these people had one tenth of the intelligence 
of the French Communes, they would walk into 
those churches and have a grand lottery draw- 
ing with no blanks. 

As I have seen it, the whole thing is a whited 
sepulcher. I mingled with ten thousand French 
on July 14 when they celebrated the fall of the 
Bastile, and sang with them the Marseillaise, 
not because I was French, but because it was an 
effort and a successful one of establishing in- 
dividual freedom; and it pleased me, and I 
wondered when I might join with Mexico and 
help them sing La Golondrina and celebrate the 
Fall of Guadalupe. 

Old Cato's climax in his Roman speech-mak- 
ing could well be paraphrased for the nineteenth 
century, and when thinking of the incubus of 



140 



Land Without Chimneys. 



Mexican progress, would fit well with a change 
of one word when we say: 

"Carthago delenda est." 




CHAPTER IX. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

WHERE once stood the Palace of 
Montezuma, now stands the national 
Palace. It occupies the entire east- 
ern side of the Plaza Mayor, with a frontage of 
675 feet, and was built in 1692. It is open to 
the public all day long. 

On the ground floor of the plaza front are the 
barracks. On the second are the President's 
chambers and those occupied by the Spanish 
Viceroys and the Austrian usurper, Maximilian. 

At the extreme front is the Ambassadors' 
Hall, so long that the President at one end in 
his chair of state seems but a pigmy, and so 
narrow that three persons with outstretched 
hands can touch either wall. The idea of 
spacious halls seems never to have entered the 
Mexican's head. Huge buildings they have, 
but they are only a succession of rooms whose 
dimensions depend upon the usual length of 
building timbers, which is never over twenty 
feet. It seems easy to connect the joists on 
supporting pillars and enlarge the room, but, 
"We have always done this way." So the 
Ambassadors' Hall has a probable length of 300 
feet, and an actual width of about twenty. 

At the Southern end is a raised dais where the 

141 



142 Land Without Chimneys. 

President presides ; at the other, under a canopy 
are two magnificent state chairs. One was the 
property of Cortez, and has his name on the back 
in pure gold, and the date 1531. It is in excel- 
lent repair, since its construction was entirely 
of metal covered with brocade, and one might 
doubt its antiquity were not the ear- marks of 
old Spain everywhere visible in all its work- 
manship, even in its coat-of-arms. The other 
is covered entirely with pure gold and is the 
chair of state of the President, and must be 
worth $20,000 if appearances comport with the 
actual value of gold. Just opposite this chair 
is a painting fifteen by thirty feet, depicting 
the great battle of Puebla when President Diaz 
first won his spurs in defeating the French army. 
An old grizzled veteran who fought in the battle 
will point out the notables in the picture, not 
omitting his own which stands to the left of 
the President. 

On the same wall hang the pictures of George 
Washington and the leaders of Mexican Inde- 
pendence, Iturbide, Hidalgo andMorelos. There 
is no room closed to the visitor, so we visit the 
President's barber shop, reception room, library 
and the Hydrographic office where maps and 
charts are being made. All these rooms are 
furnished dilFerently, and are as elegant and 
comfortable as even a president could wish. 
Nearby is the treasurer's office, and how my 
feet clogged when I tried to go by ! I just want 
to change money all the time ; I know of no 
better way to get rich than to change money. 
Hand over one of Uncle Samuel's ten-dollar bills, 
and get eighteen dollars and sixty cents back, 
is just doubling your money as fast as you can 



Public Buildings. 143 

stow it away. It beats the lottery business all 
to pieces. So when I passed by the treasurer's 
office I wanted to change money, but I was 
loaded down at that moment and could not. 
When you step into a restaurant and give a 
U. S. dollar for your dinner and get your dinner 
and another dollar in change, you want to eat 
some more. 

In the courtyard is a curious plant that has a 
flower exactly in imitation of the human hand 
with all its fingers. It is the clieirostemon 
plaxam 'folium or hand tree. Only three specimens 
exist in Mexico. As all the public buildings 
are under one roof, we soon find ourselves at 
the Post Office with its seven days wonders. No 
one goes to the window and inflicts upon the 
unoffending young lady that much abused old 
legend, " Is there a letter here for me? " O no, 
that is not the style. When the mail arrives, 
the letters are arranged alphabetically and 
numbered consecutively, then the list is type- 
written and posted on the bulletin board, where 
he who runs may read. Beginning with No. 1 
on the first day of the month, the numbers run 
to the end of the month and start over. The 
foreign list is published separate from the native. 
If you find your name on the bulletin you pass 
to the window and call for date and number 
only, and a book inside has a duplicate list. 
The letter is handed you, and you sign your 
name opposite the number of the letter, giving 
street, number and hotel. At the same time a 
policeman stands at your elbow, scrutinizing all 
persons and their handwriting, and qualifying 
himself to find you again if necessary in case of 
forgery. To an American the system may seem 



144 Land Without Chimneys. 

cumbersome, but he must remember that he is in 
a country where letters to the United States cost 
five cents, and I have seen domestic letters from 
one state to the other cost ten cents, as much as 
many people earn, so there is not much letter 
writing. 

Then it has its advantage. Every time a 
clerk is called to the window, she knows there 
is a letter needed, and it saves the endless "yes, 
no, yes, no" all day long, and the sorting of 
hundreds of letters to look for the name of a 
person who is not expecting a letter at all, "but 
just thought I would ask you." The system is 
infinitely better than that in Texas towns with 
a Mexican population. No Mexican signs his 
name without a flourish which obscures the 
name entirely sometimes, and besides, the Mex- 
ican names have a way of spelling themselves 
different from the pronunciation. 

The Texas post-mistress lumps all Mexican 
mail in one box, and when a Mexican shows his 
head at the window she hands him all the 
Spanish literature on hand, and he takes what 
he wishes. If he is dishonest, he can purloin 
any mail he sees fit. The Mexican officials are 
very kind, and always try to keep a clerk who 
knows English. Of course she is always out 
when you need her most, but that does not de- 
tract from their good intentions ; but the Spanish 
language is so easy a person can learn a hundred 
words a day, and if he knows Latin he has 
nearly half the language to start with. 

Next door to the Post Office is the National 
Museum, the most wonderful repository in 
America, where ancient Mayan, Aztec and 
Toltec relics lie side by side with the civiliza- 



Public Buildings. 145 

tion of today. Here are gods without number 
and idols by the thousand. 

Strangest among these symbols is the ever- 
present serpent, that subtile being that has left 
its stamp in the mythology of the old world. 
Wherever native religions have had their sway, 
this symbol is certain to appear. It appears in 
Egypt, Greece, Assyria and among the super- 
stitions of the Celts, Hindoos and Chinese, and 
here upon these ancient idols he is carved upon 
porphyry and granite in natural size and heroic 
dimensions, but always in coil, with the rattle- 
snake fangs and tail conspicuous. 

Here is also the Aztec sacrificial stone of 
basalt, nine feet in diameter and three feet 
thick, within whose bloody arms, from Spanish 
authority, twenty-thousand victims were an- 
nually offered up. All of the Spanish under 
Cortez would have been killed upon that awful 
retreat of Noche Triste, were it not for the zeal 
of the Mexicans to capture them alive to offer 
as sacrifice rather than kill them in battle. The 
central figure of all this interesting collection is 
the calendar stone upon whose mysterious records 
the scholars of Europe and America have labored 
with only partial success. The stone is circular, 
is hewn from ' a solid piece of porphyry, and 
weighs fifty tons. How it ever reached this 
island is a mystery, when the people had no 
beasts of burden; how it was carved is a mystery 
as the people did not know iron. The greatest 
wonder is the inscription which accurately 
records the length of the solar, lunar and siderial 
year, calculated eclipses, and is a more perfect 
calendar than any European country possesses. 

From this stone we learn that the Aztecs di- 



146 Land Without Chimneys. 

vided the year into 365 days; these were divided 
into 18 months of 20 days each, and, like the 
ancient Egyptians, they had 5 complementary 
days to make out 865. But the year is conirjosed 
of six hours more than 365 days, and in America 
we add the six hours every four years and make 
leap-year. The Aztecs waited 52 years, and 
then interposed 13 days, or rather 12-J-, which 
brought the length of their tropical year 
to within the smallest fraction of the figures of 
our most skillful astronomers. Like the Per- 
sians and Egyptians, a cycle of 52 years was 
represented by a serpent, so prominent in my- 
thology. 

This interpolation of 25 days in every 104 
years showed a nicer adjustment of civil to solar 
time than that presented by any European cal- 
endar, since more than five centuries must elapse 
before the loss of an entire day. Their astro- 
logical year was divided into months of 13 
days each, and there were 18 years in their 
indications which contained each 365 periods of 
13 days each. It is also curious that their num- 
ber of lunar months of 13 days each were con- 
tained in a cycle of 52 years with the interpolation 
of 13 days (12^) should correspond exactly with 
the Great Sothic period of the Egyptians, viz : 
1461. By means of this calendar, the priests 
kept their own records, regulated the festivals 
and sacrifices, and made all their astronomical 
calculation?. They had the means of setting 
the hours with precision; the periods of the 
solstices and equinoxes and the transit of the 
sun across the zenith of Mexico. This stone 
was dug up in the great square in 1790 where it 
had lain buried since the Conquest in 1520, but 



Public Buildings. 147 

its high scientific deductions are out of all pro- 
portion to the advance of the Aztec in other 
branches of learning, since the stone is more 
exact today than any European calendar in 
existence, therefore it must have been made by 
another race. The characters are in the Toltec 
language, but there are many points of it which 
.the Toltees copied from the Mayas of Yucatan, 
and the Mayas seem to have copied from the 
Egyptians, of which we shall speak in another 
chapter. 

There are other relics more ancient than the 
Calendar Stone, and others more recent. There 
is the ideographic picture-writing, through which 
we learn the history of the race previous to the 
Conquest. Here is Montezuma's shield, the 
armor worn by Cortez in the Conquest, his battle- 
flag, the statue of the war god Huitzilopochtle, 
Tula monoliths, the Goddess of Water, Palenque 
cross, Chacmol, and the finest carriage in the 
world, built by Maximilian for his Mexican 
capital. The body is painted red, the wheels 
are gilded, and the interior is lined with white 
silk brocade, heavily trimmed with silver and 
gold thread. 

In Ethnology and Zoology the exhibits would 
require days to see. The museum is open every 
day but Saturday, and is thronged ever. The 
Indians never tire gazing on the scenes which 
recall the times when they were masters. In 
the midst of the quadrangle is a beautiful garden 
of rare plants and tall palms. 

Soldiers guard the entrance and police wel- 
come you and ask for your camera and umbrellas, 
and as your party starts, a uniformed lad will 
fall in at your heel, attach himself to your 



148 Land Without Chimneys. 

shadow and never leave you till you descend 
the steps to the exit. He does not seek your 
companionship necessarily for publication, "but 
as an evidence of good faith." He is not in- 
trusive nor garrulous; his duty is simply to 
be ever present. With tens of thousands of 
valuable relics in easy reach, probably they are 
acting wisely upon past experience. 

The next door leads to San Carlos, the Na- 
tional Art Gallery. Here are the famous paint- 
ings of " Padre Los Casas," "The Deluge," and 
Murillo's " San Juan de Dios" and " The Lost 
Sheep." In the fourth and fifth salons are the 
works of native Mexicans, and their love to old 
Spain is shown by their paintings ; whole sides 
of the salons are given to the cruel tale of the 
Conquest and the Inquisition : Spanish Cava- 
liers, holding up the cross in one hand and the 
drawn sword in the other, and cutting down the 
ignorant natives who would not confess the 
Virgin; the death of Montezuma, surrounded 
by heaps of gold so gluttonously hoarded by the 
Spaniards; the fate of his brother, Guate- 
motzin, the last of the Aztec chieftains, whose 
feet are held in the fire by his Christian torturers, 
to disclose his hidden treasures, and the haughty 
chieftain still kept his heroic mien without a 
murmur. 

One of his generals who was similarly tortured 
appealed to him. Turning a look of scorn upon 
him Guatemotzin replied: "And say, am I on a 
bed of roses? " There is a weird fascination 
about the paintings that makes you feel that the 
paintings have just stepped from the pages of 
Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. It is the Cham- 
ber of Horrors where the Spanish Inquisition is 



Public Buildings. 149 

depicted by men who knew. Overhead are 
scores of medallions of famous men of Mexican 
birth, and beneath each a famous picture. 
Leaving this salon we come to a well lighted hall 
with several hundred easels and folding stools. 
This is the instruction room, and is filled with 
students and models and casts and charts, where 
lessons are given to all who apply without re- 
gard to creed or race or color. The Color Line 
has no place in Mexico. Beneath the salon are 
halls filled with statuary, where clay modeling 
and sculpture is taught, and as you leave with 
weary limb you are convinced that it is in truth 
a National Academy. 

Then there is the Mineria, the School of 
Engineering. and Mines, oh San Andres and 
Betlemita streets. It cost a million and a half 
of dollars, and was the work of the sculptor 
and architect, Tolsa. It contains rich collec- 
tions of geological and minerological specimens, 
and a meteorological observatory, also a fossil of 
the Pleiocene horse of three toes. The mint on 
Apartado Street struck its first coin in 1535, and 
since then the coins of republics, empires and 
dictatorships have run from it in a constant 
stream of gold and silver to the enormous sum 
of $2,200,000,000. 

Then there is the National Library and the 
Preparatory School on San Ildefonso Street, 
with a thousand students and fine equipment 
and botanical garden. Public instruction is 
free and gratuitous in every respect, without 
regard to race or religion. 

Just beyond the Cathedral is a National 
Pawnshop, Monte de Piedad, "Mountain of 
Mercy." It was founded more than a hundred 



150 Land Without Chimneys. 

years ago by Count Regla, the owner of the 
famous silver-mine of Real de Monte, who gave 
three hundred thousand dollars for the purpose, 
so that the poor and needy could get money on 
their belongings at reasonable interest. Any 
article deposited is valued by two disinterested 
parties, and three-fourths of its value is 
promptly advanced. If the party ceases to pay 
interest on the loan, the article is kept six 
months longer, and then exposed for sale. If 
not sold in the next six months, it is sold at 
public auction, and all that is realized from the 
sale above the original pawn, is placed to the 
borrower's credit. If this money is not called 
for in a specified time, it reverts to the bank- of 
the institution. This is a government insti- 
tution, and has entirety broken up the small 
pawn-shops that charge unreasonable interest. 
The rate of interest is never raised, and it lends 
a million dollars a year, and has fifty thousand 
customers. One dollar is the smallest sum 
loaned, and ten thousand the largest, and the 
loans are about three hundred daily. About 
one-third of the articles pawned are never re- 
deemed, and tourists can find some wonderful 
bargains here. The Diamond snuff-box pre- 
sented Santa Anna when he was Dictator is here. 
$25,000 will buy the little trifle. 

In all the wars and revolutions this old city 
has seen, all parties have respected this grand 
institution, with one exception : When Gonzales 
was president in 1881, he ran so short of money, 
that to keep the National credit, he levied upon 
its treasuiy. An English syndicate with a 
capital of $25,000,000 lias recently bought the 



Public Buildings. 15i 

institution for one million, and will still carry 
on the banking business. 

Chapultepec, "The hill of the Grass-hopper, " 
is the president's White House and the West 
Point of Mexico. It is three miles from the 
city, and is situated upon a perpendicular rock, 
two hundred feet high, and was a veritable 
Gibraltar in war times when cannon were un- 
known. This castle was the pride and ambition 
of Carlotta, the wife of Maximilian, and she 
spent half a million dollars on the interior furn- 
ishings. The interior is remodeled on the Pom- 
peiian style. The castle is reached by a winding 
road around the hill, and also by a secret cavern 
through the hill. On the rock in front are the 
engraved pictures of Montezuma I. and his suc- 
cessor. In the rear is the immense park of 
ahuehuete or cypress trees, next in size to the 
redwoods of California. One of these venerable 
monarchs is fifty feet in circumference and one 
hundred and seventy feet high, under which 
was Montezuma's favorite seat. This park 
measures two miles in length, and reaches to 
Molino del Key, "The King's Mill," which 
figured in the war with the United States. 
It is now the National Arsenal. 

The Military Academy is at Chapultepec, and 
the whole hill is a military camp. From the 
citadel a view can be had of the whole valley of 
Mexico, forty miles long and thirty wide. To 
the left of the road leading up to the castle is a 
cave, closed with an iron gate. This is said to 
have been the treasure house of both Montezuma 
and Cortez. A stairway leads up through the 
hill to the castle. A large collection of animals 
are in the park and a beautiful flower garden. 



152 



Land Without Chimneys. 



From here leads an aqueduct that supplies the 
city with water, just as it did before the Con- 
quest. Here was made the last stand against 
the American army under General Pillow, and 
U. S. Grant was one of the first to mount the 
hill, and the flower of the cadet army was slain 
here, and they were only boys. The occasion 
has been remembered by the government, and 
at the foot of the hill stands a large monument 
with the names of all the boys who fell. On 
one side is this inscription : 

"DEDICATED TO THE STUDENTS 

WHO FELL 

IN DEFENDING THEIR COUNTRY AGAINST 

THE AMERICAN INVASION." 




CHAPTER X. 

THE PASEO AND BULL-FIGHT. 

THE City of Mexico with its 350,000 in- 
habitants is a disappointment to the 
foreigner. The business portion looks 
just like an American city. All the Mexican 
cities are paved with cobble stones, with the 
street lowest in the center, which is the gutter. 
Here the streets are broad, cross at right angles, 
high in the middle with gutters next the side- 
walk, and are paved with asphalt. The houses 
are four story, and the shops have glass show 
windows, very unusual in Mexico. The reason 
is, this is not a Mexican city. It was built by 
foreigners and is now run by foreigners. 

On July 14, when the French celebrated the 
Fall of the Bastile, four-fifths of the business 
houses were draped in the tri-color of France. 
With twenty-five foreign consuls, six vice con- 
suls, and fourteen foreign ministers, each with 
)ts attaches and dependencies, it is no wonder 
the city's local ear-mark is lost in this assembly 
of foreigners; and, were it not for the languages 
of Spanish and French which fall so musically 
on the ear, the scene would not be very different 
from a street in Chicago, if we eliminate the 
vehicles. It is due the foreign element that the 
city has the finest boulevard in America. 

153 



154 Land Without Chimneys. 

LA PASEO DE LA EEFORMA. 

The Latin American races are very fond of 
carriage-driving, and one of the first signs of 
wealth is the laying out of the promenade where 
the "four hundred" may drive at the fashionable 
hour. Before the present Paseo was built, the 
fashionable drives were Paseo de La Viga and 
Paseo de Bucareli. Every afternoon, then as 
now, were to be seen two long rows of carriages 
with crowds of gentlemen on horse-back and 
multitudes of foot passengers. 

The Paseo de Bucareli, or Paseo Nuevo, is in 
the southwestern part of the city. It was opened 
Nov. 4, 1778, by Don Antonio Maria de Bucareli, 
the viceroy. It has the same starting point as 
La Reforma, the circular plazuela in which 
stands the statue of Charles IV. and extends 
half a mile almost due south to the Garita de 
Belem. In the glorieta near the city gate, is 
what wa3 once a handsome fountain, surmounted 
by a statue of Victory, erected in 1829 in honor 
of Guerrero, and which was originally gilded. 
For promenading, the Paseo is now practically 
deserted, but is becoming a fashionable resi- 
dence section. 

The glories of Paseo de La Viga have indeed 
departed. The once famous and fashionable 
drive is almost deserted, save during Lent when 
an old custom prescribes that fashion shall air 
itself there. It traverses the bank of La Viga 
canal for many miles, past the chinatnpets or 
floating gardens, through a double avenue of 
shade trees, where continual processions of 
Indians are seen from the Lake country, pad- 
dling to market with canoes laden to the guards 
with vegetables, fruits and flowers. 



The Faseo and Bull-Fight. 155 

But Fashion is a tyrannical mistress, and she 
decrees that Paseo de La Eeforma be the only 
place to see and be seen. It leads from the 
statue of Charles IV. to the gate of Chapultepec, 
two miles and a half. It is laid with smooth 
asphalt, and has a uniform width of two hun- 
dred feet. 

It has double avenues of shade trees on each 
side, with broad foot ways on the side, lined 
with seats for the w T eary. At certain intervals, 
the street widens into glorietas, or cireles, four 
hundred feet in diameter. The street passes on 
each side of these glorietas and leaves them as 
green islands with beautiful flowers and stat- 
uary. There are six of these glorietas and more 
are to be added. 

All along the curbing of the Paseo, are statues 
of men famous in Mexican history, and are 
contributed by different states. At the entrance 
to the Paseo is the equestrian statue of Charles 
IV. of colossal size. 

Thirty tons of metal were used in the casting, 
and it is the largest single casting in the world. 
Humboldt says it has but one superior, that of 
Marcus Aurelius. 

A royal order issued Nov. 80, 1795, granted 
to the Viceroy Marquis de Brancef orte to erect 
this statue in the Plaza Mayor. The commission 
was given to the sculptor Don Manuel Tosta, 
and the casting in bronze to Don Salvador de la 
Vega. The mold and furnaces were made ready 
in the garden of San Gregorio, and after two 
days spent'in fusing the mass, the cast was made 
at 6 a. m. Aug. 4, 1802. The casting, remark- 
able alike for being in a single piece, and for 
being the first important piece of bronze 



156 Land Without Chimneys. 

executed in America, came out of the mold 
complete and without defect. In 1803, it was 
erected in front of the cathedral where now is 
the bandstand of the Zocalo. Here it remained 
till 1822 when the Mexicans had achieved their 
independence, and the feeling against Spain was 
so bitter it was encased in a wooden globe and 
painted blue, but was finally placed for safety 
from the mob in the patio of the university, a 
comparatively out-of-the-way place. Here it 
remained in obscurity till 1852 when it was set 
up in the commanding position it now occupies. 
The height of horse and rider is fifteen feet nine 
inches. The king is dressed in classic style, 
wearing a laurel wreath and raising aloft a 
scepter. 

On both sides of the Paseo at its entrance, are 
colossal figures on high granite pedestals said 
to represent Aztec warriors. The work must 
have been done by Spaniards, in ridicule, for a 
more hideous pair of warriors never went to battle. 

The first glorieta contains Cordier's Colum- 
bus, one of the most admirable and artistic 
modern statues to be found in the world. This 
was the work of the French sculptor, Cordier, 
and was erected at the cost of Don Antonio 
Escandon. The base is a platform of basalt, 
surrounded by an iron railing, above which are 
five lanterns. From the base arises a square 
mass of red marble with four basso-relievos; the 
arms of Columbus with garlands of laurel; the 
rebuilding the monastery of La Rabida; the 
discovery of San Salvador; a fragment of a 
letter from Columbus to his patron Raphadi 
Sauris; beneath which is the dedication by 
Senor Escandon, 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight. 157 

Above the basso-relievos and surrounding the 
pedestal, are four life-size figures in bronze, of 
monks and missionaries, and crowning the whole 
upon the top of a pedestal of red marble is the 
figure of Columbus, drawing aside the - veil 
which hides the new world. 

In the next glorieta is Cuauhtemoc, a worthy 
companion of Columbus, and is the work of 
Don Francisco Jiminez. The statue of the great 
warrior king is magnificent, as he appears 
hurling defiance at his country's enemies. The 
base contains some fine basso-relievos, one rep- 
resenting the torture of Cuauhtemoc (also 
spelled Guatemotzin) by the cruel Spaniards. 
The fretting around the structure is all after 
the old Aztec pattern, and the trophies of Indian 
arms and insignia are all intensely appropriate 
to the warrior who preferred death of his whole 
people to the surrender of his city to the Span- 
iards. Facing the Paseo is the following in- 
scription: "A la memoria de Cuauhtemoc y 
de los Guerreras que Combatieron Heroic am ente 
en Defensa de su Patria M. D. XXI. " 

Mexico is indebted to Maximilian and his 
wife Carlotta for this Paseo. She had set her 
heart upon a " Paseo Imperaliz," and Maximil- 
ian entered heartily into the scheme, but he 
did not live to complete it. His idea was to es- 
tablish a court that should rival any in Europe, 
and he had already introduced titles of nobility. 

He planned to create a handsome park of 
Chapultepec, with lakes and streams and drives, 
with deer and swans and all the other nice 
things. What was done he paid for out of his 
own civil lists, and he intended to pay for it all 
and present it to the city. The Mexican peo- 



158 Land Without Chimneys. 

pie could not brook a European Emperor, but 
they all loved "Poor Carlotta, " and as she 
planned the Paseo, every year they add some 
new improvement until it has now become the 
glory of the republic. Every addition is an 
evidence of good taste, and Carlotta' s park idea 
is already planned. From the la^t glorieta two 
roads branching to Tacubaya and Tlaxpana are 
being prepared, and the park grounds will then 
extend from Molino del Eey to the Exposition 
building, three miles. 

One never tires of sitting on this boulevard 
and viewing the motley throng as it passes in re- 
view, driving, riding or promenading. Ladies 
in Parisian bonnets and Spanish mantillas ; the 
dashing equestrian rigged in the paraphernalia 
of Mexican horsemanship, or breeched and 
booted after the manner of Rotten Row itself. 
Stately vehicles drawn by snow-white mules; 
four-in-hands tooled along in the most approved 
European style; youthful aristocrats astride 
Lilliputian ponies, followed by liveried servants; 
here and there mounted police with drawn sabres, 
giving an air of old world formality to the whole 
proceeding. In and out among them flash the 
bicycles ridden by men, women and children 
from all civilized countries; the kaleidoscope of 
the pedestrains, dressed in their peculiar garb 
with red and gray and black rebosas, raven 
black hair exposed to view, and the Indians 
from the mountains in their severe simplicity. 
The procession passes up the right, with here 
and there a light American buggy, or a heavy- 
wheeled English mail phaeton with a real live 
dude at the front holding the reins, and a 
liveried flunkey facing behind and holding a 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight. 159 

flaring bouquet, and, after reaching Cliapultepec, 
it conies back on the other side, leaving the 
center to the horsemen, and to the latter' s dis- 
gust, the bicycles. 

And we must not forget the centaurs, the 
Mexican horsemen ; rigged out in all the silver 
ornaments of bridle and saddle worth more than 
the spirited horse, and ten thousand people to 
admire them, they never appear to better ad- 
vantage than when exhibiting on the Paseo. 
Spanish and Mexican ladies rarely ride, and 
when they do, they are so very exclusive they 
ride in closed carriages. At the glorietas are 
stationed military bands with from forty to 
eighty pieces in each, and the procession always 
exhibits to "slow music." 

Poor Maximilian, at heart a great man, but 
the dupe of Europe, planned this city as a 
king and died as a king. Could he return now, 
what might be his feelings to see his plans car- 
ried out? And poor Carlotta ! the idol of Mexico, 
a victim of circumstances, has never forgotten 
that fatal day when Maximilian was shot at 
Queretaro and the flash of the rifles left her a 
queen without a throne and a wife without a 
husband. To this day she drags out a miser- 
able existence at the Austrian capital, a maniac 
that has spent thirty years murmuring and 
jibbering his name. There is in America a 
miserable lack of respect to kings, be they never 
so good and kind and great, and Mexico was 
only true to the free air of the mountains when 
she refused Maximilian. Mountain-born men 
will always be free. 

BULL-FIGHTING. 

The Aztec in his palmy day offered human 



160 Land Without Chimneys. 

sacrifice. He daily made war upon his neigh- 
bors to secure the victims, and washing his 
hands in gore has been his profession for six 
hundred years ; this is why bull-fighting with 
its fascination and danger and death is to him 
so dear. 

Every Sunday afternoon and every feast-day 
is given up to this bloody pastime and every- 
body goes. The foreigner goes once, sometimes 
twice, but rarely three times, but he never for- 
gets what he sees. Four dead bulls, three dead 
horses, from one to three maimed or dead men 
is the possible result of a Sunday's sport. Each 
city has its plaza de torus or bull-ring, just as 
we have theaters, and the bull-fighters go from 
town to town as our opera companies. The 
stars of the company are the swordsmen. The 
bull-ring is a circular amphitheater, after the 
manner of the Roman Coliseum, and will seat 
from four to twenty thousand. The govern- 
ment takes a strong hand in lotteries and bull- 
fights, and in the latter, receives twenty- one 
per cent, of the gate receipts. In the federal 
district, the secretary of the republic presides 
at the fight. 

Four different haciendas are licensed by 
the government to breed bulls for fighting 
purposes, Durango and Cazadero being the 
most noted. Poncama Diaz, a nephew of the 
president, is called the star matador of the 
world, and owns the Bucarelli bull-ring in the 
city, which is capable of seating 20,000 people. 
The arena is a circle 200 feet in diameter, and 
open to the sky. Around this is an eight foot 
wall to protect the people, and at intervals 
along this wall are "escapes" for the fighters 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight 161 

when the bulls decide there is not enough room 
in the ring. Receding from the ring are the 
tiers of seats arranged in the manner of a circus. 
Those on the shady side usually selling for a 
dollar, while the "bleachers" sell for 25 or 37 
cents. Over these seats are the private boxes, 
and above all the gallery for the olla podrida. 

An ordinary troupe consists of two matadores 
or swordsmen, four banderilleros or dart stickers, 
two or four picadores or lancers, and the laza- 
dores who lasso and drag the dead animals from 
the ring. The program usually consists of the 
killing of four bulls in an hour, with sometimes 
an extra. The president of the function, (every 
thing here is a function) may reject any part of 
the performance or fine any member who com- 
mits a breach of ring etiquette. The performance 
is set for four o'clock and is always the same. 
The crowd waits, grows impatient, the band 
plays. The crowd grows more impatient, the 
band plays again — plays all the time. Finally the 
judge appears, (every function must have a 
mediator between the people and the event) and 
is seated in his decorated box, and the band 
plays again. 

The judge makes a sign to the bugler who 
blows the opening of the gates, through which 
comes a snow-white horse bearing a rider dressed 
in green and gold, with knee pants and silver 
buckles, flowing cape, cocked hat and waving 
plume. This is the president of the company, 
and he begs the permission and approval of the 
fight. The judge assents and throws him the 
keys of the bull-ring, (what else is he there for?) 
and the rider retires. Again the bugler blows 
and the company enter in full force, and the 



162 Land Without Chimneys. 

costume of each is worth a thousand dollars in 
gold. No two are dressed alike as to color. 
Silk jackets that reach the waist, knee pants 
and silk stockings and a cockade hat, all pre- 
sent the prismatic colors of the rainbow. Around 
each is a Spanish cloak, held around the waist 
with the left hand. As they make their bow to 
the audience, the cloak is let loose with the left 
hand and swings around gracefully pendant 
from the left shoulder. 

Again the bugle blows, and through the open 
gate a fierce bull from the mountain is ushered 
in. As he passes the gate a man overhead 
thrusts a steel dart into his shoulder, and on the 
dart is a rosette and a silk ribbon bearing the 
name of the hacienda whence he came. Mad- 
dened by the wound and frightened by the noise 
and people, he seeks the cause, and sees two 
horsemen in the arena. The horse is blind- 
folded to prevent his shying, and has a piece of 
sole-leather covering his side for protection. 
The horseman has a lance and endeavors to 
thrust it into his shoulder to ward him off. The 
lance point is short and is not meant to do 
serious harm, but to wound and irritate the bull 
and make him furious for the final battle. 
Sometimes the lance fails to score, sometimes it 
holds in his tough hide and the handle breaks 
and the bull buries his horns in the horse's belly, 
and hurls both horse and rider in the air. 

The horse was intended for the sacrifice from 
the beginning, and this was a part of the pro- 
gram. When the bull has killed one or two 
horses, he is encouraged to fight, and that is 
just what the whole thing is for. A man with 
a red flag draws the bull's attention to the other 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight. 163 

side while the dead horse is dragged out, and 
sometimes a dead man. Again the bugle blows 
and the ring is cleared, and two banderilleros 
enter. With a red flag one gets the bull's at- 
tention, and a banderillero runs to the center. 
In each hand he holds a banderilla, a sharp steel 
dart about a foot long, and ornamented with 
rosettes and streamers. When the bull charges, 
ho must reach over his horns and plant both of 
his banderillas in a shoulder at the same time. 
Sometimes the spread of horns is four feet, and 
the banderillero must make the pass and escape 
in a flash. As the bull makes the charge in a 
frenzied run, you find yourself unconsciously 
rising from 3^0111* seat in anticipation of the 
almost certain death of the man, and women 
who see it for tha first time usually faint and 
are promptly carried out. 

Should the man succeed in planting the ban- 
derillas, the crowd shower cigars and flowers 
and fans upon him and shout bravo! bravo! 
Should the bull succeed in thrusting his horns 
through the man's equatorial region and toss him 
in the air, the crowd shout bravo torus! just the 
same and cheer and whistle. They paid their 
money to see blood and what does it matter if it 
be man or bull's? At this point it is proper for 
the American ladies to faint and come to and 
hurry out, while the Mexicans laugh at people 
who leave before the fun begins. The idea of 
fainting for such a small thing ! The dead man 
is carried out and the other banderillero takes 
his place, and as the bull charges he must plant 
his banderillas in the other shoulder. Some- 
times the experts vary the program by sitting in a 
chair until the bull is within six feet of him, and 



164 Land Without Chimneys. 

then rises and makes his thrust in time to escape, 
and the bull goes off writhing in pain and try- 
ing to shake the cruel darts from his shoulder. 

Sometimes a detachable rosette is thrust be- 
tween his eyes as he charges, and the stream of 
blood that follows betrays the steel point be- 
hind the beautiful rosette. Then men with red 
flags will tantalize him. They stand behind the 
flag, and as the bull charges the men step aside, 
holding the flag at arm's length in the same 
place, and the bull passes under the flag into 
empty air, where the man was. Quick as a cat 
he detects the fraud and turns upon the man, 
who makes a two-forty sprint to one of the es- 
capes, where the bull tries to batter down the 
planks to get to him. The bull is now mad 
enough to fight a circular saw, and again the 
bugle blows. The ring is cleared and now en- 
ters the matador. The judge hands him a red 
flag and a sword. He must now challenge the 
bull to single combat, and to the victor belong 
the congratulations, and the man knows full well 
that if he gets killed the crowd will cheer the 
bull just as heartily as they would if it were the 
other way. 

All the preliminaries of the fight were to 
aggravate the bull to his highest fighting 
power, then turn him over to the mat- 
ador, the "star of the evening. " Rules 
as rigid as the Marquis of Queenbury 
prevail, and woe to the man who should 
violate a rule or take advantage of the bull ! 
The judge would instantly order him from the 
ring and fine him. The ethics of the fight re- 
quire that the man shall stand in the middle of 
the ring, wave the red flag as a challenge, and 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight. 165 

as the bull starts toward him put the flag be- 
hind him. As the bull charges, he must reach 
over his horns, thrust the sword through his 
shoulder, pierce the heart, and the point of 
the sword must appear between the bull's fore 
legs, and it must all be done in a single stroke. 

The hand and the eye must be as quick as 
lightning to do that when the bull is on the 
run. If the stroke is successful, the sword 
flashes a moment in the air and the next its hilt 
is resting against the shoulder blades, and the 
bull falls as if struck by lightning. Then the 
air is rent with shouts and dollars and fans 
and handkerchiefs, and with one foot upon the 
dead animal, the matador bows his appreciation. 
The bugle blows, the two lazadores gallop in, 
throw their lariats over the two hind legs of the 
bull, and without checking their gallop, drag 
him out and prepare for another. A bull is 
killed every fifteen minutes as regular as the 
clock. 

Sometimes the sword misses the heart, and 
the bull walks off with a stream of blood and 
an ugly sword wound, and then the hisses and 
remarks that fall upon the matador sometimes 
drive him to suicide. I saw a matador driven 
to desperation by the hisses, and seizing an- 
other sword he made the stroke just behind the 
ear, severing the medulla oblongata, a more 
difficult stroke than the other, thereby redeem- 
ing himself f Sometimes a bull with wide 
stretch of horns will disconcert a matador and 
he will attempt to retreat at the last moment, 
but then it is as often death as escape. 

One Sunday a company had unusually bad 
luck. Three horses and two men had already 



166 Land Without Chimneys. 

been killed, and only two bulls, and the troupe 
had no more matadors. One man was apologiz- 
ing to the audience that the sport could not 
proceed as he had already lost two men, when 
the bull suddenly made a charge upon him and 
caught him between the shoulders. The" sport " 
closed for the day, and the people pronounced 
it a great success. 

The next Sunday there w T as hardly standing 
room from the crowd that came back hoping for 
a similar show. I met the crowd returning, 
and asked how was the fight? Several shook 
their heads and looked dejected. " N~o bueno 1 
nobody was killed and the w T hole thing was a 
fiasco." If a bull refuses to fight after the 
lance has been thrust into him, the bugler at a 
sign from the judge blows him out. It must be 
a bloody, thoroughbred fight or none at all. 
It requires a long education to harden people to 
suffering and blood as these people practice 
daily. I saw two soldiers walk out of the bar- 
rack to fight a duel with pocket-knives, and a 
hundred people stood by and saw them kill each 
other and not a hand was raised to stay them. 
The modo duello among the cow-boys is very ef- 
fective. When two cow-boys have a difficulty that 
cannot be settled, their friends take them off and 
tie their left hands together and stick two 
bowie knives in the ground for their 
right hands, and leave them. The one 
that is left alive can cut himself loose 
and come back to camp. If neither comes back 
by the next day, the friends go over and bury 
them. There is also a woman bull-fighter in 
Mexico; her name is La Charita. Arizona 
Charley, an American cowboy has also endeared 



The Paseo and Bull-Fight. 



167 



himself to the Mexican heart by proving him- 
self a first-class matador. Bull-fighting is as 
much a national sport as our base ball. At one 
time it was interdicted in the federal district, 
and the people would go to Puebla every Sun- 
day, seventy-five miles away, to see the "sport." 
To the lovers of the sport it matters little 
whether the bull or horse or the man gets killed, 
or all three. What they want is their money's 
worth. 

The meat is sold to the butchers after the 
fight, and Monday morning when the waiter 
asks the Americano how is his steak, the answer 
generally comes, li It's bully." 




CHAPTER XI. 

LA YIGA CANAL. 

ON THE side-walk adjacent to the western 
entrance to the cathedral is an iron and 
glass Kiosk. This is Mexico's flower 
market. Every morning in the year from day- 
break until eight o'clock, the sidewalk and the 
adjoining street is one mass of fragrance and 
color. Every flower you know and as many as 
you do not know are spread in the greatest pro- 
fusion possible, which fact suggests an inexhaus- 
tible supply-house somewhere. Here are roses, 
jassamines, pansies, violets, heliotropes, sweet- 
peas, gardenias, camelia's, lilies, honeysuckles, 
forget-me-nots, verbenas, lark-spurs, poppies, 
morning-glories, tulips, geraniums, and orchids 
of untold variety and color. And there were 
purchasers. Priests from all the churches, mil- 
liners and cafe proprietors, dry-goods' merchants, 
hotel keepers, the senora in her private carriage, 
senoritas with holy shrines and patron saints to 
honor, devotees whose special saint day is to be 
celebrated by a fiesta — everybody buys flowers, 
and they come by the ton as fast as other tons 
are sold. And they are arranged by master 
hands into cornucopias, crosses for the church 
altar, wreaths for the funeral car, decorations 
for the cemetery, and into any design the pur- 
chaser may indicate. 

168 



La Viga Canal. 169 

I ask where such a world of flowers can come 
from in such an unbroken stream. " From Las 
Chinampas," the floating gardens. Floating 
Gardens ! that sounded like the tales I had read, 
and here are people just from them ! I anx- 
iously ask where are they : u En Canal La Viga;"- 
and so the search began. A street-car takes us^ 
to La Embarcadero where a hundred eager boat- 
men leave the wharf and come running to see us. 
I always thought I was popular, but here was an 
ovation I had not looked for. Then I learned 
something new. Each of my hundred friends 
had the best boat on La Viga, and each of 
my hundred friends was the best pilot from the 
canal to the lakes. Here was absolute perfec- 
tion in ship building and nautical knowledge 
that would make Diogenes put up his lamp and 
say: "Eureka!" After each had extolled the 
virtues of his particular scow, or flatboat, or 
raft, whichever it approached nearest in ap- 
pearance, we chose one. 

If Canal La Viga was ever dug by man, his- 
tory is silent about it. It was here when the 
conquerors came. It serves the same purpose 
as Niagara River, and brings the water of Lakes 
Chalco and Xochimilco down to Lake Texcoco. 
It has a uniform width and depth, and its banks 
are lined with stately avenues of trees the 
entire length. To the great middle-class and 
Indians, this is the great highway of commerce 
and resort for pleasure. Sundays and feast 
days it is a mass of moving color. In the dim' 
past this city was the Venice of the New World, 
so boating is an inheritance. The boats are 
from ten to fifteen feet long; from four to eight 
wide and are generally poled along. There is 



170 Land Without Chimneys. 

an awning and comfortable seats where the 
passenger may enjoy the scenery protected from 
the sun. You make any arrangement you can 
as to price, and your boatman spits on his hands 
and pushes off, and if it is early in the morning 
you meet hundreds of crafts coming to market 
loaded down with fruits, grain and vegetables, 
pigs, lambs and chickens, and charcoal and 
baskets and everything else that the Lake 
country produces. The vegetables, by irriga- 
tion, surpass anything you have ever met in that 
line; heads of lettuce larger than cabbage, 
and radishes as large as an ear of corn. A di- 
minutive steam tug is met, trailing twelve or 
fifteen barges loaded with grain and cordwood 
from the upper lakes. Under a shade tree by 
the water, is a laundry after the fashion of the 
country, and a man and woman are washing 
clothes. The man's part consists in sitting 
down and looking tired while the woman scrubs. 
If it is Sunday the boats are laden with gar- 
landed merry-makers with tinkling guitars and 
singing and dancing and having a "large time." 
On the right is the once famous Paseo de La 
Viga, whose glory has long since departed to 
the Paseo de La Reforma. In spite of its neg- 
lect, La Viga is one of the most delightful drives 
in the city, especially in early morn, when 
canal traffic is at its best, and during Holy Week 
when the great middle-class take their holiday. 
Almost immediately after starting, we reach the 
old puebla of Jamaica, which, like the Paseo, 
has the look of having seen better times. On 
the opposite bank and by the Paseo, stands a 
melancholy bust of Guatemotzin, the last of the 
Aztec chieftains, whom the Mexicans delight to 



La Viga Canal. 171 

honor — another testimonial of ancient aristo- 
cratic grandeur. The next point of interest is 
the old Garita de la Viga, the custom-house 
building, dating back to Spanish times. 

Until a month prior to this writing, all boats 
paid custom duties on whatever merchandise 
they brought to the city. When the duties were 
paid the smaller boats were admitted through a 
small gate-way, which necessitated the lower- 
ing of the awnings, while the large ones had to 
discharge their cargoes. 

On the up-stream side of the romantic old 
bridge is always a blockade of boats of every 
description, from mud scows to steamboats, 
waiting for a transfer. The first town beyond 
the Garita is the quaint little town of Santa 
Anita, the Coney Island of the Canal. It is 
essentially a Mexican town of thatched reed 
houses, nearly every one a restaurant for the 
sale of those unnamable dishes one meets with 
so often, which have a far-off smell, but fill a 
long-felt want. After hearing their names called, 
you are no wiser, but feel better. There are 
also liquid and semi-liquid refreshments to suit 
the taste, provided your sense of taste has been 
destroyed before coming here. The insidious 
and seductive pulque mixed with the firey tequila 
and mescal are all loaded with malice prmpens, 
and are better left to the lava-scarred throats 
that have met them before. All the fruit drinks 
are excellent, but the drink par excellence is 
the pina. It is made from grated pine-apple, 
sweetened- with sugar and cooled with the snow 
just brought from Popocatapetl that morning. 

When Horace sang of the wine of Brundusium 
cooled with the snows of Hymettus, he had not 



172 Land Without Chimneys. 

heard of the pina of Santa Anita backed up by 
Popocatapetl. Here are games, and all manner 
of games peculiar to the people, and flower- 
booths where the people buy flowers and garland 
each other, where even the humblest may wear 
a crown woven of fragrant flowers woven by 
the hand of Borneo or Juliet, only they call each 
other Ramon and Inez. Here is a fine old church 
with a beautiful tower and a diminutive plaza 
with restful seats and entrancing music. 

Be sure to stop at the hacienda of Don Juan 
Corona. He was a retired bull-fighter, and in 
his old age became antiquarian, and his house is 
a vast museum of costly and rare antiquities. 
When he died he left a legacy to found a school 
for the poor, and if you have any pennies to be- 
stow upon the senora who shows you around, 
they will be well spent. 

We leave the merry-makers and proceed on 
our search for las chinampas i after our boatman 
has mulcted us for coppers enough to tank up at 
a pulque joint. The thick ropy liquid has 
loosened his tongue in a marvelous manner, and 
the flood gates of his information bureau are 
raised, and for an hour he gives us chapters of 
unwritten history and legends of the country. 
That which I knew, he gave in Spanish, and 
that which neither of us knew he gave in Aztec, 
and he justified his claim of being the best in- 
formed guide on La Viga. Henceforth I call 
him Ananias. The two snow-clad volcanoes were 
close by on our left and I asked him which was 
Ixtaccihuatl and which Popocatepetl. "This 
is Esclaewa and that is Popocaltepay, " he 
promptly answered. I said : "Man, your pro- 
nunciation is bent a little bit to starboard; 



La Viga Caned. 173 

everybody else says Popocatepetl." " Of course 
they do,'' he said, "which only proves that every- 
body else is wrong. I say it is Popocaltepay." 

That scored one more for that designing pulque, 

and. added to the title of Ananias, that of Geogra- 
pher with a pedigree only three removes by 
blood from some people Baron Munchausen once 
knew. 

The next town reached was Ixtacalco, where 
the people Beem to have sobered clown, and the 
burg showed less bent for pleasure and more for 
business. Here a fine old stone bridge crosses 
La Viga, and a discouraged old chapel with its 
portals wandering down to the water's edge, 
where, in the good old days gone by, the boat- 
man muttered an ace and deposited his offering 
to the saint in whose honor it was consecrated, 
in the hope that good luck might attend his 
market voyage. In front of the church, dedi- 
cated to Saint M;. tie s, and which is a Franciscan 
foundation of more than three hundred years 
ago, is a lit'le plaza with a fountain of running 
water. Along the lane from this plaza and marked 
by a palm-tree, is the ruin of what was once the 
chape 1 of Santiago, which is used as a dwelling. 
, In the midst of these inhabitants is the rem- 
nant of what was once a most gallant image of 
Santiago himself, now galloping to defend the 
faith on a headless horse, another relic of the 
romantic past, the work possibly of some cavalier 
of Spain, under the leadership of that prince of 
brave men, Hernan Cortez — for cruel as he was, 
we cannot withhold from him the meed he justly 
earned in bearding the lion in his den, though 
The New World. Venice was buried in his blood- 
reeking canals. Who knows whese work it was, 



174 Land Without Chimneys. • 

least of all the inhabitants of Ixtaealco, or the 
mutilated image itself, or if it knows, it dis- 
closes not its secret. We told Ananias to drive 
on, but that worthy assumed an electrocuted 
countenance that was wonderful to behold. The 
long distance had already paralyzed one side, 
and "He barely had strength enough to take 
him back to the city, and the Lake is fifteen 
kilometers. You will have to hire another boat- 
man from here, and senor, by all the saints I 
could not pass that bridge, it is beyond my terri- 
tory, and besides, senor, how much more will you 
give me to carry you to the next town? "' 

There! at last we see him in Lis true light, a 
pirate ! Three well-earned titles in one day and 
it was not a very good day for titles either, and 
he had no appearance of aristocracy either. 
Certainly he did not belong to the Order of the 
Bath. ' 'Here, ' ' said I, ' 'I will give you three cents 
to get drunk and drown yourself." Off came his 
sombrero and down came a salaam almost to the 
prow of his boat. " Senor, I think I heard you 
say you wanted to see the chinampas." "Chin- 
ampas! why of course, that is what I left the 
city to see, where are they? " "Well senor, we 
passed the floating garden a mile back at Santa 
Anita." Caramba! Here was the title of knave 
to add to his already long list. With the hope 
of "holding me up" at the bridge lor a raise 
in wages, he had silently passed the chinampas 
for fear I would stop. 

My admiration began to grow for this Captain 
Kidd, and I was anxious to know how many 
cards he yet held up his sleeve, but it was ex- 
pensive, so telling him to soak his head, I crossed 
the bridge and struck out upon the causeway, and 



La Viga Canal. 175 

for miles and miles there was nothing but chin- 
ampas! They could have been seen from 
Ananias' boat had it not been for the bank of 
the canal. This then was the mint where the 
flowers and vegetables were coined for the great 
city. Floating garden is now a misnomer. In 
years gone by they really floated on rafts, but 
as the French say "Nous avous change tout 
celaJ' Since the lake was drained they are all 
stationary and are likely to remain so unless 
" Popocaltepay " resumes business again. 

The Chinampas are a net-work of islands — 
Venice moved from the city to the lakes. The 
land-owner simply taps the canal with a ditch, 
leads it around three sides of a square and 
brings it into the canal again, making a rectan- 
gular island of any dimension he chooses. His 
neighbor beyond taps to his canal, and the 
system is extended for miles and miles just like 
the streets, of a city, the business blocks answer- 
ing for the islands. Through these canal streets 
dart thousands of boats that harvest the crops 
that grow here forever. Surrounded and satur- 
ated with water the chinampas are always moist 
and .fertile and as there is no winter it is one 
perpetual seed time and harvest. The accumu- 
lated humus and vegetable matter make it 
unnecessary to even fertilize. 

Broad streets cross these areas at intervals 
and among these islands and along the 
causeways the Indians live. No mosquito is 
ever billed for an evening's entertainment, and 
the voice of the mud-turtle is not heard in the 
land. Malaria ? perhaps, but what of that ? A 
few dollars to the priest, a few masses for the soul 
in Purgatory, and the general average in the 



176 Land Without Chimneys. 

end is about the same. Your average Indian, 
like the Hindoo, is a fatalist, and "Kismet!" 
what is to be will be. There is something of 
beauty in these humble homes, and where 
flower-growing is a profession, it would be 
strange if their beauty had left no impres- 
sion upon the lives and homes, and so all 
the people of La Viga decorate with flowers. 
The thatched house of reeds will be hidden under 
its wealth of vine and flower of the copra del oro 
with its immense golden cups approaching in 
size a squash blossom. Within these huts are 
specimens of dark beauty and features and 
wealth of hair that many a fairer maiden might 
envy. Seated under her own vine and pome- 
granate tree, wrapped in thought and a scant 
petticoat, she weaves a mat of rushes or knits a 
hammock that will find its way to the home 
of some who read these lines. 

Are they happy? "Where ignorance is bliss, " 
etc. They were born here, their parents before 
them were born here, this beautiful valley has 
all the charms to them that your home has for 
you. And is not Antonio here ? and is he not 
the best gardener on La Viga, and are they not 
going to the little chapel next fiesta to be joined 
by the priest ? Surety happiness in this world is 
measured by the contentment of our lot. 

Not all the people of the Chinampas have 
boats. The great highway along the bank 
carries more passengers than the placid waters. 
An Indian woman with a hundred and thirty 
pounds on her head will trot her thirty miles to 
market and return next day. I say trot because 
no other word will do. All people of the burden- 
bearing class have a swing trot that they keep 



La Viga Canal. 177 

up all day. And the income ! what glowing 
picture of opulence does the Indian not feel 
when he spends two days in the mountains burn- 
ing charcoal, then loads himself and burro with 
his wealth, and trots his twenty miles to market? 
A dollar and a half for both loads would drive 
him speechless, but let us confine ourselves to 
actual facts, and grant him a whole dollar. He 
counts himself well paid, and the five days labor 
and forty mile journey count for nothing. He 
is not selling his time, but his carbon which he 
patiently peddles till sold, only keeping enough 
to feed his burro with. I suppose he feeds him 
with it, for I am sure I have never seen him 
carry along anything else that looked like feed. 
For desert a f ew T banana peels around the market 
place and broken pottery is about his only chance 
unless good luck blows some old straw hat his 
way; then he feasts. Time! What is time to 
the Indian? Has he not a whole year? 

The next town on La Viga is Mexiealcingo, 
seven miles from the city. Before the Conquest 
it w r as of some importance, but now only a 
straggling village with dirty streets, which 
shelter possibly three hundred people. The 
ruins of the monastery and church of San Marco, 
built by the Franciscans, are here. The old 
causeway and military road, seven miles long, 
that once crossed the lake from Mexico to 
Ixtapalapan, crosses La Viga at this point. 
This was a dependency of the Aztec City. A 
very picturesque view of the high old bridge of 
Aztec time is had, and the bright green maize 
on one hand, and the old ecclesiastial building 
on the other, bowered in masses of dark green 
foliage, are very pleasing. Past the ancient old 



178 



Land Without Chimneys. 



bridge the scene changes but little except there 
are less signs of habitation, and finally the last 
town of La Viga is reached, Culhuacan. This 
is a picturesque old town, half of it built on the 
hill, and bere are the ruins of a fine old church 
and monastery. Here La Viga begins to broaden 
out into a lake, and everywhere, both parallel 
with it and at right angles to it, are many 
branches of the canal, which in wet weather are 
small lakes themselves. 

The journey might be continued out into Lake 
Xochimilco "The Field of Flowers," and the 
quaint and beautiful town of the same name 
would be well worth the time; but we started 
out to see where all those beautiful flowers came 
from, and veni, vide, I returned. 



? ~% 




CHAPTER XII. 



THE SUBURBS. 



T 



"^HERE are twenty suburban towns around 
the capital that can be visited by horse- 
cars, or as the natives say, "tram-vias." 
They are Atzcapotzalco, Tacuba, Tacubaya, 
Jamaica, Santa Anita, Chapultepec, Molino 
Del Rey, Churubusco, San Ange], Castaneda, 
Tlalpam, Cepoyacan, Popotla, San Joaquin, 
Contreras, Azteca, Nueva Tenochtitlan, Guada- 
lupe, Tlaxpano, Tlalnepantla and Mixcoac. 
You will notice that most of them bear Aztec 
and not Spanish names, which means that they 
arc older than the Conquest, and are worth 
seeing, even though you do not get out of the 
cars. 

The farthest away is old Tlalpam, about 20 
kilometers, and most of the journey is made by 
steam. Seven or eight cars leave the city, drawn 
by mules to the gate of the city where they are 
coupled together, and a locomotive pulls the 
train through the beautiful valley at the rate 
of fifteen miles an hour. It makes one feel a 
little bit creepy to know that he is thus hurried 
along in a train of street cars, but they are 
made by a reliable New York firm and that 
gives confidence. We pass through a valley 
overlain with volcanic tufa, and herein lies the 



179 



180 Land Without Chimneys. 

secret of the wonderful productiveness of this 
farming land. It is easily pulverized and makes 
a fertilizer as potent as the commercial ones. 
Old Tlalpan is on the rim of the valley and the 
foot hills of the plateau, and is a residence 
suburb of the wealthy who do business in the 
city. The walls of the private residences are as 
forbidding as a penitentiary. Solid masonry 
from ten to twenty feet high, capped with broken 
glass fastened in cement . 

A Mexican's home is indeed his castle, to 
which he enters through stone walls and iron 
gates. You are not wanted there and are never 
invited. I knew an American professor who 
taught five years in Mexico, and had seen the 
inside of only three homes, and then he went on 
business, and saw none of the female members. 
Such is the custom and seclusiveness of the 
people. 

Tlalpan reminds me of a citizen of New York 
who went into a Jin du siecle saloon to get a 
drink, and when he 'paid his reckoning it was 
one dollar. He naturally protested against the 
exorbitance, and the clerk called his attention 
to his surroundings. " My dear sir, look about 
you ; this is no dive, these paintings cost a hun- 
dred thousand dollars." The victim paid the 
dollar, and thought long and deeply. The next 
day he returned by way of a harness shop, and 
got a pair of blind bridles that draymen use on 
their horses, and thus equipped he entered that 
aristocratic saloon and walked up to the counter. 
"Gimme a drink straight without any scenery 
today." That is old Tlalpam. Every street 
has its blind bridles up and no scenery, but it is 
not peculiar to Tlalpam. I have never seen a 



The Suburbs. 181 

Mexican's home with a front yard. At the 
edge of the sidewalk up goes his stone house or 
his stone wall, pierced with an opening and 
closed by a heavy iron gate fastened always on 
the inside. Members of the family have to give 
the password or its equivalent before it is ever 
opened, and tramps are unknown. Life would 
have no pleasures for a tramp who could not 
open the back-gate and creep up to the kitchen 
and frighten a woman to death by a flash of his 
living picture. 

In Tlalpam you walk a block between high 
walls to the cross street, and do the same to the 
next and the next, and you can imagine how 
delightful it is, "Straight without scenery." 
You must not forget that none of the streets 
have shade trees. So after I had admired all 
the beautiful stone walls and stone pavements, a 
wicket was suddenly opened to pass someone in, 
and I got a flashing glance of languid senoras and 
senoritas taking their siesta in hammocks swung 
between lime trees redolent with fragrance and — 
some one shut the gate. If that sleepy old town 
thought that I had come all the way there to 
look at the stone walls, little did it know me. 
I pounded on that gate till the startled inhab- 
itants thought I was trying to break into jail, 
but I got in, and found myself in one of the 
most beautiful and fascinating places I had yet 
seen. The spraying fountains and flowers and 
song birds, and the Moorish setting of the sur- 
roundings, took me back to the wonderful stories 
of the Alhambra. Meanwhile that astonished 
household was all agape at the unheard of in- 
trusion, but great is the power of flattery. I 
frankly told them that I had been sent all the 



182 Land Without Chimneys. 

way from the United States by a committee of 
one, to hunt out the most beautiful places in 
Mexico and secure their photographs at all 
hazard to display and strike dead with envy the 
people who live in the stuffy cities of America. 
That on that very morning I had left the City 
of Mexico for the express purpose of getting a 
picture of the finest place and the most beautiful 
ladies in Tlalpam, and with that end in view I 

was here. "Enough Senor, enough! Take 

us ; we are all yours, the house, the fountains, the 
trees, the girls— they are all yours, take them." 

Here was eloquence and victory combined and 
I did not know what to do with all the victory. 
I had solemnly promised not to accept any more 
costly presents from these good people, but this 
bunch of girls seemed to be different from ho- 
tels and other real estate, so I resolved to make 
the old gentleman a present of his house and 
lot, and keep the girls ; so I very gladly em- 
braced — er — the opportunity of posing them for 
their pictures. Why these good people should 
hide so much loveliness and beauty behind im- 
passable stone walls is beyond wy ken. 

How old is Tlalpam ? I don't know, but it 
began at a time when the memory of man run- 
neth not to the contrary. Upon the walls, the 
crop of glass planted in the cement did not seem 
to nourish very much. It was a very glassy 
looking glass and seemed to need irrigating, but 
time is long with these people, and if it does not 
pan out a crop in the next fifty years, they will 
wait patiently for manana^ that scape-goat of 
all incompleted enterprises — to-morrow. I don't 
know whatever gave these people an idea that 
they could grow glass anyway, unless it was the 



The Suburbs. ' 188 

Spanish moss. This moss is a parasite that 
grows upon all kinds of trees, but in old Tlalpam 
it grows upon the wires stretched across the 
street to hold the street lamps, and it is aristo- 
cratic moss that grows with its head up instead 
of trailing, and I call that making headway 
against adverse conditions. The weeds and 
cacti upon the wall seemed to make their way' 
better than the broken glass, and when I last 
saw them, they were green and were getting up 
in the world. 

" But it is a long lane," etc., as the proverb 
says, so at last the supply of aristocracy gave 
out at the rise of the hill, and we reached the 
realm of the great unwashed, who had neither 
walls nor rags to hide their nakedness. The 
happy children were clothed with innocence 
which needed no other protection than the blue 
sky and the Republic of Mexico. 

Higher and higher we go up the hill. The 
avenue we started in led into the main street, 
this street finally led into a path, and the path 
terminated in a cow trail and this trail merged 
into a squirrel path which ran up a tree; so, like 
the King of France, " We marched up the hill, 
and then marched down again . " But before start- 
ing down we stopped to rest at the tree where the 
squirrel trail disappeared, and looked over the 
valley, and could realize the emotions of Cortez 
when he stood at the same place and viewed a 
similar scene. Across the silver lake lay the 
City of Mexico, twenty kilometers away, with its 
thousands of spires and pulse-throbs that sup- 
plied the veins and arteries and capillaries to 
the fortunes and hopes of its tens of thousands 
of dependencies. No wonder Cortez said it was 



184 . Land Without Chimneys. 

the fairest city man ever looked upon. The one 
thing a stranger never quite masters here is the 
rariiied atmosphere which destroys all ideas of 
distance and nullifies all laws of optics. You 
have traveled the road and know it is twenty 
kilometers, but the city is brought so like a 
mirage that you seem almost able to hear the 
clock strike. We leave our squirrel path and 
find ourselves in the city of the dead, a beauti- 
ful £>lace shaded with eucalyptus trees and 
furnished with restful seats. 

Soon there enters a figure heavily veiled and 
places a wreath of amaranth upon a new-made 
grave, marked with a wooden cross, andR. I. P. 
We leave her to her sorrow and follow a limpid 
stream from the mountain back to the city 
below. Beyond is the parched chaparral and the 
thorny cactus now laden with its harvest of 
purple tunas, surely the manna of the desert 
for these discouraged-looking peons. Beside 
the stream were green trees of limes and oranges 
and English walnuts and agua caties and an air 
of restf ulness. 

We follow the stream into the little plaza 
with its spraying fountain and fragrant Datura 
suaveolens, which grows into quite a bush. The 
pleasant seats invite us to sit and listen to the 
notes of the noisy purple grackle and the dis- 
cordant tropical jay as they take their morning 
bath. Rip Van Winkle is still asleep and Mrs. 
Xantippe R. V. W. has not yet come from the 
market, and so for fear of disturbing the seren- 
ity of that Elysian Field, we tip-toe back to the 
station where the car is waiting, and that sleepy 
old town does not know to this day that a band 
of camera fiends invaded its sacred precincts, 



The Suburbs. 185 

even unto its highest citadel and returned with- 
out the loss of a single man. Happy Old 
Tlalpam. R. I. P. 

Back across the ancient bed of the lake we fly, 
and where once was Montezuma's fleet are herds 
of sleek cattle, knee-deep in rich alfalfa, awaiting 
their turn to contribute to the material welfare 
of the mammoth city. We reach a junction, 
Churubusco! Immediately we think of that 
history class of twenty years ago, when we had 
to "stay in" after school because those battles 
would not fight themselves in the right places ; 
when Chancellorsville and Crown Point and 
Saratoga and Churubusco could not agree as to 
time, place and manner. Here was a chance to 
settle one point, even if the teacher had long 
since died of worry, and we anxiously get out 
and look. 

" Where is Churubusco? w "This is Churu- 
busco." "But," I said, "I don't see anything 
but a street-car stable with some mules in it." 
"All the same this is Churubusco." "Well," 
I enquired, " where does this mule car go from 
this junction? " "It goes to San Angel, a sum- 
mer residence town." I determined to go out 
there and come back when my mind was settled 
to take a look at Churubusco, but when I got 
back, there it was, just an adobe mule stable. 
I sat on a bench opposite and tried to think what 
did General Scott want with the stable, and 
why they put it in the history. I suppose it 
was put there to punish unoffending little boys 
who liked to play base-ball. I took out my 
camera and prepared to shoot the harmless 
stable, and changed my mind. I was not on a 
warlike expedition, but was in pursuit of know- 



186 Land Without Chimneys. 

ledge, and I did not want to add another blot 
on the sanguinary page of America's Dr. Ledger. 
No, not for a brevet. I put up my magazine. 

A general vegetable merchant, who had three 
cabbages and four turnips on a board, seeing my 
troubled countenance, very kindly came over 
and said: "Que 2^ense, Senor?" I said: "I 
am thinking about General Scott bringing his 
army up here after that car stable and then did 
not take it away after you gave it to him. Now 
don't you think he was off his base?" He 
shrugged both shoulders, took his cigarette from 
his mouth and thought a minute, and then he 
uttered these words of wisdom: " Quiensabe?" 

I said, '"Well ii: you live here and do not 
know, how am I expected to know, and what 
are the histories to do about it ? And my good 
fellow, just between you and me and the gate- 
post, don't you think if General Scott had come 
here and taken a good look at that stable first, 
he would have gone on to town and had a good 
night's rest, and saved me all this unrest and 
pang of conscience about that history lesson, 
and that poor dead teacher ? " 

With his eyes full of pity he said: " Scnor, 
are you hungry?" "Yes lam, and I am dis- 
gusted with your old street-car stable.''' "Senor, 
here's your car if you are going to town." I 
turned my face to the city and my back on 
Churubusco. 

We soon reached the city gate, where the lo- 
comotive was unhitched and the mules were re- 
hitched, and we were soon on the street, where 
we met a funeral car with its black canopy Hy- 
ing behind, as the mules, under whip and lash, 
hurried to the city of the dead, and I went to 



The Suburbs. 187 

drown my thoughts in a glass of pina. Others 
may have this drowning mania sometimes, so I 
give this recipe free gratis for nothing, as I got 
it from the senora oh the Zocalo. The pine- 
apple is first pared and sliced as we do apples. 
Then on her knees the senora takes her stone 
rolling pin and stone vessel like a wash board 
and reduces the slices to pulp, which is strained 
and sweetened and iced, and is sent to you by 
the senorita, who guarantees to drown all your 
troubles for just six cents,, and she innocently 
prattles away until the glass is empty, and "of 
course the caballero will have another." Under 
ordinary circumstances you would not, but many 
a man has taken his second glass there just be- 
cause he did not know how to say no. The next 
car is bound for Atzcapotzalco, so we jump 
aboard and pass out upon that terrible cause- 
way where the Spanish army were almost an- 
nihilated on that memorable night of Noche 
Triste, July 1, 1520. 

At the bridge you pass through the Riverra 
cle San Cosme and are shown El Salto de Alvar- 
ado. Alvarado was the most trusted lieutenant 
of Cortez, and on the retreat that night the 
Aztecs cut the causeway and the waters rushed 
in, separating the army of Cortez into two parts. 
Alvarado was fighting in the rear, and when he 
attempted to join Cortez he found the dike 
cut. His men were all killed or taken prisoners, 
and he gathered all his strength and made the 
leap from the end of his lance that made him 
famous. Authorities do not give the distance, 
but say it was impossible for any other man. 
Aztecs and Tlaxcalans alike looked on in amaze- 



188 Land Without Chimneys. 

merit and cried: " Surely this is Tonatiuh, the 
child of the Sun! " 

Here the Aztecs stopped to gather up the rich 
booty which Cortez had taken from their treas- 
ure-house and was forced to leave behind in the 
breach, and the circumstance alone enabled the 
invaders to reach the village of Popotla, a mile 
further, where Cortez sat down to weep over the 
destruction of his army. The tree under which 
he sat is by the side of the street and is known 
as the tree of Noche Triste — Melancholy Night. 
It is a cypress and is called by the Aztecs, 
Ahuehuete. Some years ago a religious fanatic 
set fire to it and disfigured it, but it still shows 
a trunk forty feet high and the same in circum- 
ference. The American tourists were about to 
take it all away as relics, so the city was com- 
pelled to enclose it in a lofty iron fence, which is 
fully able to enforce the ordinance, " Keep off 
the grass." The natives very naturally expected 
me to attempt to scale the fence and get a 
branch, and to let them know that all Ameri- 
cans could live up to their reputation. I vig- 
orously shook one or two of the iron posts 
which stubbornly refused to leave the enclosure. 
All the same I felt proud; I had proved to them 
that I was an Americano, who would rob the 
dead, if the dead had aii} T keep-sakes about him 
that would do to exhibit at home. 

Having thus patrioticall}' saved our national 
reputation, I boarded the car for Atzc^potzalco, 
which was once an independent kingdom and 
the capital of the Tepanecs. Atzcapotzalco, 
only seven miles from Tenochtitlan, held the 
Aztecs in subjection. Once when the Aztec 
King sent a present, Maxatla, the tyrant, in 



The Suburbs. 189 

derision returned to the king a woman's dress. 
Later he allured to his court the wife of the 
Aztec king and violated her. For this insult, 
the Aztec king Itzacoatl, "Serpent of stone," 
made an alliance with the Acolhuans, and in a 
two da} r s' battle the city of Atzcapotzalco Was 
taken, 1448, and reduced to a slave market and 
never again rose to power. I think they were 
still talking about that battle when I was there. 
Old age seemed to have settled down upon every- 
thing, and the task to arouse them was so great 
I refused the contract and left it just as Cortez 
found it in 1520. The valley surrounding it is 
very fertile and alfalfa and vegetables were as 
green as ivy. 

Tacubaya is the Monte Carlo of Mexico and 
the most aristocratic suburb around the city, 
with fine residences and beautiful gardens and 
the most handsome villas in the country. From 
the gate of Chapultepec a causeway leads 
through a most beautifully shaded avenue to 
the city, and then I lost interest in it. I was 
riding a bicycle and when I reached those 
cobble-stone pavements I gave them my undi- 
vided attention. A tall fellow from Texas did 
the swearing for the crowd, and he was so fluent 
there was no need for reinforcement, so my 
whole mind was given to calculations as to 
whether I could mount that next stone or climb 
out of the next hole. I saw a policeman and I 
thought he was coming to read the law, which 
says no team shall go faster than a walk, so I 
stopped to give him my impression of the inquisi- 
tion and the rack, but I was disappointed. He 
had simply used up all the shade on his corner 
and was hunting for more. A frog once lived 



190 Land Without Chimneys. 

in Kiota, so the Japanese story runs, and he 
started out to see the world. When he reached 
the top of a hill he reared on his hind feet to view 
the world. As everybody knows, a frog's eyes are 
on the back of his head, and as he reared up, his 
eyes pointed right back to Kioto, so he returned 
and said : " All the world is like Kioto . " So all 
of Tacubaya is like the main street, just cobble- 
stones. I am sorry I missed all the beauties 
they say are there, but all I saw was the front 
wheel of that bicycle and the cobble-stones. 
Bicycling is best done in that town on foot. 

With Penon it is different. Penon was once 
an island in Lake Texcoco, but since the drain- 
ing of the lake it is high and dry and is noted 
for the hot baths and its beautiful bath house. 
The whole establishment is paved in glazed tiles 
laid in mosaics, and the pillars are all painted 
after the ancient Egyptian style. I neA^er was 
an Egyptian, but if I was I think I would mis- 
take this excellent imitation for one of the old 
establishments that Anthony and Cleopatra 
used to patronize so liberally. The ride to 
Penon on bicycle across the ancient bed of the 
lake cannot be excelled. 

On the road we passed the new penitentiary^ and 
the boys wanted to stop and see it, but I was 
perfectly satisfied to "pass by on the other side." 
Not that I was likely to meet any old acquaint- 
ance among its officials, but on general principles 
I argue that a penitentiary is a good place to 
stay away from. You might get lost in there 
and not get out, and besides, we had been in- 
terviewed by the greatest newspaper in the city, 
and as most fellows' wood-cuts always look like 
somebody you never heard of, I thought those 



The Svburbs. 191 

officials might have seen those pictures and would 
arrest us — I mean the other fellows — for some 
jail bird that escaped long ago; but they were 
bound to go so I told them somebody had to 
attend to those bicycles, and if they would not 
I felt it my bounden duty to stay there and 
guard them. So I went to the pen by proxy. 
They say it was grand and had cages and other 
attractive furniture all from the United States. 
I always mean to go to the penitentiary by 
proxy. 

Across the lake is the city of Texcoco, that 
was once the Athens of the valley as Tenoch- 
titlan was the Rome. Here are many ancient 
remains of buildings built when this was the 
most bitter rival the Aztec capital had. Were it 
not for the help of the Texcocoans, Cortez never 
would have conquered the Island City. Beyond 
here are the Arcos de Zempoala, an aqueduct 37 
miles long, supported by arches nearly a hun- 
dred feet high. Two leagues from Texcoco is 
the Malino de Flores, ' ' The Mill of the Flowers, ' ' 
which is not a mill at all, but the entrancing 
home and estate of an old Spanish family, 
Cervantes by name, and one of the oldest and 
noblest of the Grandees from old Spain. 

In this fairy laud of a hermitage you marvel 
as you never did before at the possibilities of 
beautiful surroundings and Moorish architec- 
ture. I wish I might describe this beautiful 
place, but,no one can unless he be artist, florist 
and architect, and as I am neither I will not 
mar its beauty by a parody of an attempt. For 
a description of the towns I did not visit, consult 
any good cyclopedia. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WITHIN THE GATES. 

THE city contains nearly six hundred miles 
of streets well-paved but not supplied 
with shade trees. In nomenclature they 
are a puzzle. The principal street is San Fran- 
cisco; the first block of it is called first San 
Francisco; the second block, second San Fran- 
cisco, etc., and often a street changes its name 
every now and then, and the names include 
everything : La Nina Perdita,orLost Child Street, 
Crown of Thorns Street, Holy Ghost Street, Moth- 
er of Sorrows Street, Blood of Christ Street, 
Jesus of Nazarus Street, The Immaculate Host 
of Jesus Street. 

And the shop signs are a law unto them- 
selves. No sign indicates the kind of business 
done in the shops. Thus, " El Congresso Amer- 
icano " may be a blacksmith shop or a milliner's 
establishment; "El Sueno de Amor" is the 
Dream of Love, but is likely over a shoe store ; 
"La Perla Del Orient" was a lottery ticket 
ofiice; " El Amor Cantivo, " Captive Love, was 
a dry goods' store; and so on with "El Mar," 
The Sea; "La Coquetta," "El Triumfo de 
Diablo "and " The Port of New York." Some- 
times they hit a meaning which was not meant; 
" The Gate of Heaven " was all right, as it was 
placed over a drug store. 



Within the Gates. 193 

Other signs ending in "ria" indicate the 
goods sold. "Sombrereria" is a hat store, 
"sombrerero" is the hatter and "sombrero," 
the hat. "Zapateria," shoe store; "zapatero," 
shoe dealer; "zapato," a shoe. "Sasastaria, " 
a tailor shop; "plataria," silversmith, etc., 
but these signs are used only where articles are 
made, all others being fanciful. The stores are 
nearly all kept by Frenchmen and styles are 
the same as in Paris. The ladies of the "400" do 
their shopping in their carriages, and have the 
goods brought to the carriage for inspection. 

The metric system prevails. Railroad tickets 
are sold by the kilometer, land by the hectare, 
cloth by the meter and sugar by the kilogram. Sil- 
ver money is coined in the same denomination 
as ours, and the coppers are as large as a silver 
quarter. The law for counting money by dol- 
lars and cents was passed in 1890, but the peo- 
ple still count by the old way, though they 
know both. The old way is a copper tlaco, a 
cent and a half, a cuartillo, three cents. For 
silver, medio, 6^ cents; real, 12^ cents, which is 
equivalent to our "bit." A quarter, or 
"two bits" is two reals, in Spanish dos reales 
but always pronounced "do reals." The real is 
the anit of calculation, the people rarely 
using the term pesos, or dollars, in small 
amount. If you ask the hotel prietor what are 
his terms, instead of saying two dollars, he will 
say sixteen reals, and will use that term for any 
amount less- than five dollars. An actual real 
of 6^ cents is no longer coined, and its value 
leads to serious complications. 

Your street car fare is twelve cents for two tick- 
ets. You offer the conductor a quarter and he 



194 Land Without Chimneys. 

will give you twelve cents, and will try to argue 
that he is right, but when you enter the num- 
ber of his badge on your note-book he promptly 
gives up the other cent, but he never fails to 
try to claim it. I have known fruit vendors to 
lose a trade in trying to keep the odd cent in a 
quarter, arguing that a real is 6^ cents in theory 
but only 6 in practice. Counterfeiting is the 
greatest industry in the republic outside of the 
lottery business. Paper money is rarely seen, and 
that makes the volume of silver enormous, and re- 
quires everybody to carry bags of it. If you 
paid a man a hundred dollars in quarters, he 
would test each one separately hunting for 
counterfeits, before he would accept payment, 
and the "ring" of money testing in the market 
is a regular Babel. No man or woman trusts 
another in making change, and if there is no 
hard surface near to throw it upon, into the 
mouth it goes, and if the teeth make the least 
indenture, back to you it is flung. 

The street car system is excellent. All the 
street cars are horse cars drawn by mules. They 
are hitched tandem and go always at a gallop. 
The cars go from one to fifteen miles and have 
regular schedule time. They all meet and start 
from the Zocalo on the Plaza Mayor by the Cathe- 
dral, where there is a general conductor with a 
time-card who starts them off. They always 
go in trains of from three to six or nine cars in 
first, second and third class, and with short 
distances the fare is three, six and nine cents. 
When there are only two classes, the fare of the 
first is double the second. The first class car 
is painted yellow, and bears the legend, "For 
20 passengers," and must never carry more. 



Within the Gates. 195 

The theory is that if a passenger is willing to 
pay for comfort he shall have it. Second class 
cars are painted green, with the legend, "For 35 
passengers." For long distances the fare may 
reach as high as thirty cents. The conductor 
sells jou a numbered ticket, and the collector 
takes it up, and in your presence must tear off 
one corner to prevent the possibility of using it a 
second time. Gentlemen always offer seats to 
ladies, and salute the passengers on entering 
and leaving the car. As the car is reaching a 
crossing or turning a corner the driver blows a 
tin horn, the same that makes life a burden for 
us on Christmas day. If the car is going to a 
bath-house or other public place where charges 
are made, the conductor will sell you a coupon 
ticket with admittance to the place, the price 
being always printed on it, thus saving you 
much trouble in a rush. 

Courtesy is the price of position here, and no 
better officials can be found than the street car 
conductors, and the least infraction or dis- 
courtesy reported to headquarters receives 
prompt attention. The railroads also run three 
separate classes of cars with prices accordingly, 
but not quite in the proportion as street cars. 
Thus, from Celaya to Guadalajara, the distance 
is 161 miles, and a return ticket, first class, is 
$9.86, second $6.56, and third $1.90. 

Of carriages there are four classes. Carriages 
painted yellow and flying a yellow flag are third 
class and cannot charge more than twenty-five 
cents for a half hour or less, nor more than fifty 
cents for a whole hour. Those painted red and 
carrying a red flag cannot charge more than 
thirty-seven cents, and for an hour seventy-five 



196 Land Without Chimneys. 

cents. Blue, fifty cents for half hour, $1 for 
one hour. Green, special rates at option of 
driver and passenger. When a passenger en- 
ters a carriage, the flag must be taken down 
immediately so that everybody may know it is 
engaged and will not hail the driver, and he cannot 
make other engagements until the carriage is 
empty. All carriages and horses are inspected 
by a commission who pass upon the respecta- 
bility of carriage and team and order the proper 
color painted across the doors, and the printed 
rates pasted inside so that no intelligent travel- 
er need be imposed upon. And every hotel 
must post in its rooms the rates "con comida," 
or "sin comida"-— with or without board. No 
one need pay in advance; no matter how dilapi- 
dated you look or how scant your baggage, you 
may hire the most costly apartment in the hotel 
and no cpiestions asked about security. 

This is because the law protects the people, 
and if you defrauded a poor market woman out 
of a copper the law would follow you to the 
confines of the republic and imprison you for 
debt. That settles the bum question. The hotel 
proprietor assigns } t ou to your room and cares 
not a straw about you until you are ready to 
leave. If you pay, very well, come again. If 
not, by clapping the hands at the door brings a 
policeman immediately. The policeman hears 
the landlord's stoiy, and gives 3 T oii3 T our option — 
either pay or go with him, and the prisoner 
becomes the property of the creditor until he 
is paid. 

The police system is excellent, from the reason 
I am told that they are not appointed by politi- 
cal favor, but are soldiers from the barracks and 



Within the Gates. 197 

can be always found. Every street-crossing has a 
policeman all day and another all night, so 
during the twenty-four hours there is not a 
moment when he cannot be found. When the 
night squad comes on at 6 p. m. each man 
brings a lighted lantern and sets it in the middle 
of the crossing, and it is possible to stand at a 
crossing and count forty lanterns down the four 
intersecting streets. As soon as the houses are 
closed the policeman tries the doors and windows 
of each house to see if they are fastened, and 
returns to his lantern. Every half hour during 
the night each man must blow his whistle to 
show that he is awake and on duty. If you are 
a stranger and ask for direction, the politico 
will take you to the next crossing and deliver 
you to another and jou may thus be passed to 
a dozen politicos, and they will take every pre- 
caution to deliver you safely. If you are a 
prisoner, the process is the same, and no man 
knows what you are arrested for but the first . 
The man who delivers the prisoner simply tells 
from whom he got him, and so to the next until 
the first is reached who makes the charge. This 
makes bribery and escape impossible, for when 
a prisoner is delivered to the next man, the 
deliverer must report. It is exactly after the 
manner of the registry department of our post 
office. Should the person making the arrest 
receive a bribe and permit an escape, no one 
would know, but when once started down the 
line mo politico would take the chances. 

Every gambling house or assignation house 
or eock-pit or any other institution that the 
government licenses, is also furnished with 
policemen. All day long he stands guard at 



198 Land Without Chimneys. 

your door, and all night long his lantern sits 
at your steps, and, like the old man of the sea, 
he is always there to prevent disturbance. In 
the gambling house, he sits like a statue till the 
business is closed and sees all that passes. You 
give a ball in your private house, the politico 
takes a chair by the door and sits quietly till 
your guests have departed. You get up a little 
picnic or an excursion a few miles from the 
city, a special coach is fastened to the train 
carrying a company of infantry to keep you 
company all day. A foreign consul gives a 
reception to other consuls, a squad of mounted 
police sit their horses like statues in front of 
the consulate until it is all over. The American 
colony gives a 4th of July celebration, all day 
long they follow the procession or look at the 
dancing but never a word say they. They are 
neither meddlesome nor prying, they are just 
omnipresent. 

Your society gives a parade. Your line of 
march must be made known to the prefect of 
police and every rod of that distance will be 
guarded by cavalry. You enter a theater and 
every tier of seats has a silent man in uniform. 
You enter a hotel and any complaint from guest 
or proprietor is made to the politico. You sit 
at a public table or other place, and the propri- 
etor refuses to serve you on account of color, 
the politico locks the door and takes the propri- 
etor before the tribunal. He is absolutely every- 
where, but he is neither garrulous nor loquacious, 
and he answers all questions with a courtesy 
that is refreshing. Beyond the city limits he 
is no longer a politico but a rurale, a horseman 
dressed in buckskin and "booted and spurred 



Within the Gates. 199 

and ready .to ride." He patrols the outlying 
country as a policeman, judge or soldier. On 
the western division of the railroad, whenever 
the train stops, two rurales armed with rifles and 
sabres inspect the train. When the train leaves 
the station, a rurale stands on each platform 
and looks through the glass door at the passen- 
gers till the train gets to the next station, where 
he gets off and another takes his place, and so 
on to the end of the road. The next train going 
the next way, each squad is carried back to 
their homes, only to repeat the program to- 
morrow. When the train stops for dinner you 
leave your wraps and luggage in the seat and 
pass into the dining room, while a rurale locks 
the car door and stands guard till your return. 

Never a word do these silent men say. For 
hours they stand looking through the car door 
to see that no harm comes to anything or any- 
body. No one ever hears of train robbers in 
Mexico, but there is a reason for all this. A 
country that has been accustomed to its annual 
revolution and whose whole list of presi- 
dents and emperors nearly have died a violent 
death, must needs be ruled by an iron hand. 

And it has not been more than fifteen years 
since bandits ruled the country and dictated 
terms to the government. As late as February 
15, 1885, a commission of officers was sent 
from Zacatecas by the government to make a 
treaty with the bandit chief, Eraclio Bernal, 
and they returned unsuccessful. The bandit 
said he would disband his men under these con- 
ditions : ' ' Pardon for himself and band, a bonus 
of thirty thousand dollars for himself, and to 
keep an armed escort of twenty-five men, or to 



200 Land Without Chimneys. 

be put in command of the army in the dis- 
trict of Sinaloa." That is the answer the chief 
sent to the government ; and I have seen an ex- 
press wagon leave the train with the mail and 
express, with enough armed men to fill the 
wagon, to escort it through the streets of a city 
of seventy-five thousand inhabitants. This 
condition remained until President Porfirio Diaz 
hit upon a plan that it took a thief to catch a 
thief, so he sent word to the bandits that if they 
would quit robbing and come in, he would make 
them all officers with a salary, and they could 
still patrol their old haunts and keep the other 
fellows down, and they accepted. Now these 
men are guarding the very trains they used to 
rob. They are born horsemen and can ride a 
horse ninety miles a day on the trail. They are 
the best horsemen in the world, and can throw 
the lasso and shoot as well as ride. On a wager 
you can put a rurale in chase after a steer and 
he will throw the riato over either foot you 
name, and never check the speed of his horse. 

They are a law unto themselves, and inde- 
pendent of municipal authority. The rurales 
may find a man breaking open a freight ear, and 
they take him behind the depot, try him, dig 
his grave and shoot him into it, and the case is 
settled. No court or civil law will ever go be- 
hind their acts, and that stroke of President 
Diaz has given the country its prosperity. The 
wrong-doers know that the rurales are every- 
where, and that their vengeance or justice is 
swift and sure. There is a tacit understanding 
that jails and criminals are expensive, and dead 
prisoners are inexpensive; therefore, if a man's 
crime is worthy of death, he is shot immediately, 



Within the Gates. 201 

and all convicts are turned into the army to do 
the dirty work of the camp. Should he try to 
escape, a hundred men know that they will be 
commended who shoot him first, so there is no 
wasted sentimentality with crime, it is simply 
an option, be good or be dead. 

Ten years ago a man dared not travel without 
an armed escort, and now the same men he 
feared are his armed escort. When a great cele- 
bration is on hand and the military is wanted to 
parade, nine-tenths of the admiration is be- 
stowed upon the rurales. Centaurs they are, 
with their caparisoned horses with every piece 
of metal about saddle and bridle of solid 
silver. His own dress is characteristic. With his 
yellow buckskin clothes with silver buttons, 
silver spur and tall sombrero with silver span- 
gles and monogram, he is an object to win your 
admiration. Go where you will, in mountain 
and valley, hillside and plain, you will meet the 
rurales (they always go in pairs) with their ever 
ready rifle and lariat, looking for evil doers. 
Neither money nor time nor patience is wasted 
on criminals, and you never hear of mistrials, 
or appeals, or "deferred till next session." 
Their court dockets are never crowded. The 
official shooter with his Winchester goes from 
court to court and shoots the prisoners as fast 
as they are condemned. 

The republic supports an army of forty-five 
thousand men, and every town and city is a 
garrison, and has its military bands. Since the 
people support the army, they think the army is 
theirs, and they make claims upon what they 
claim as theirs. Every town has its military 
band, and many of them have three or four, 



202 Land Without Chimneys. 

and three evenings of each week and all of Sun- 
day afternoon and evening the bands must play 
for the people. This is a rule without excep- 
tion, and they are good bands and play fine 
music. The bands number from forty to eighty 
performers each, and in large cities there is no 
evenino- without music, alternating with ^li- 
ferent parks, but on Sunday they are^ all on 
duty, and with the band comes the social fea- 
ture of the people. Around the band stand is a 
circular asphalt walk, possibly an acre in cir- 
cumference. While the band is playing, the 
parents and duennas and chaperones are seated. 
The young men four or five deep are prom- 
enading on the outer circumference of the circle 
and the young ladies on the inner, but going in 
the opposite direction. Here are possibly a 
thousand young people thus enjoying themselves 
the young men talking to each other and the 
young ladies to each other, but never opposite 
sexes to each other. Their social customs are 
as unchanging as the laws of the Medes and 
Persians, and for a young man to speak to a 
young lady in public would be a breach of 
etiquette never forgiven, and a young lady 
would not dare walk two squares on a public 
street unattended by a duenna, unless she was 
going to prayers. She would run the risk of 
her social standing. There is no doubt that 
they do throw -sheep-eyes" at eachoherm 
the promenades, but speak, never At 10 ?. M. 
the band plays its last number, and the duennas 
gather up the young ladies and the young men 
lather up themselves and they all go home and 
talk about the glorious time they had. 

The young and unmarried never mingle, 



Within the Gates. 203 

Should a young man have seen his fate among 
these promenaders he may not say so to her. 
He finds out where she lives and "plays the 
k ear " — that is he passes along the street on the 
opposite side and gazes longingly at her balcony. 
This he does many times and many days. Of 
course she pretends that she does not see him, 
but at the same time she is earnestly looking for 
him every day. If she goes to the window he 
may stop. Further encouragement is given by 
her disappearing from the window and returning 
with a smile a la Juliet, and the young man 
goes home and pats himself on the back and 
throws bouquets at himself for his great success. 
Perhaps he will keep up this bear business for a 
year, perhaps two, and has never spoken to the 
little angel. Sometimes he will get under her 
window with his guitar with twelve strings and 
burden the night-wind with his made-to-order 
songs, and if she does not pour a pitcher of 
water on his head he has made so much head- 
way that he would be justified in thrashing any 
other fellow who should hang around the 
premises playing bear, "haciendo del orso." 

He is supposed now to have made enough 
headway to be allowed to call and get an intro- 
duction and he must find a mutual friend who 
can do it for him. He arranges the matter, and 
at last is admitted and introduced to the senorita 
in the presence of the mother and father and 
duenna, and he never, no never sees her alone. 
He invites her to the theater, and when the 
carriage calls the whole family is dressed and 
ready to go, and he never sees her except in 
their presence. If there is no objection on the 
part of the parents, and if Barkis is willing— 



204 Land Without Chimneys. 

and she generally is— the marriage takes place, 
and "they live together happy ever afterwards 
as the story hooks say. Their courtship seems 
to he in accumulating all the imaginable diffi- 
culties possible, and always presumes that the 
parents will be unwilling and must be outwitted, 
and' this invents plots and counter plots ad 
infinitum. Of course the parents know, and the 
young folks know they know, but it is the cus- 
tom to invent difficulties and they can not de- 
part from custom. A married woman's sphere 
is but little different from the unmarried ; she 
can accompany her husband on the street is one 
advantage. She is pretty as paint can make 
her and as ignorant as hermits usually are. A 
woman's world here has two 'hemispheres— the 
home and the church, and she lives and- dies 
knowing no more. 

A woman who makes claims to aristocracy 
must not under any circumstances earn a penny 
or she loses caste immediately. If she teaches 
or embroiders for the church or for charity she 
is excused, but for herself, never. Sometimes 
poverty clips the wings of these high-flyers, and 
it becomes a serious struggle between starving 
and losing caste. In such cases they will some- 
times ostensibly give music lessons for charity, 
but collect for it on the sly and still preserve 
their social standing. 

With the great middle class, all this is 
different— they live in another world. They 
make no pretense to tinsel aristocracy, and have 
their living to make and they make it with no 
limitations whatever beyond their capacity, and 
for intelligence and business, a wife from this 
class of Mexican women is worth, seventy-nine 



Within the Gates. 205 

of the bluest blood aristocracy I have seen in 
Mexico. They have a fair education in Span- 
ish, and both French and English are taught in 
the schools now, and I have found them able to 
converse in ail three, and could buy and sell 
with as good a margin for profit as men. 

Of course there are three classes here, and the 
third class will be treated of in a separate chap- 
ter. The only bearing they have here is that 
they are servants to the other two, but their 
social standing docs not count for much. Very 
few girls in this class are unmarried at thirteen 
or fourteen years of age, and twelve year old 
girls as mothers is as common a sight as pig- 
tracks. Maturity comes early in the tropics, 
and a woman is a wrinkled back-number at 
thirty. 

The marriage ceremony does not trouble these 
people much. They have not the money to buy 
the license, and so they omit the legal ceremony. 
On a hacienda near San Luis Potosi, a peon lost 
his wife. He came to the boss and asked for a 
mule to take the body to the cemetery, and also 
asked for two dollars. He explained that he 
might bring back another wife with him, so he 
wanted to be prepared for emergencies. After 
three hours he brought back another wife, and 
his household machinery never missed a cog. 

Feast days without number give this happy 
people the opportunity of enjoying themselves 
and resting.- Nut resting because they are 
weary or overworked, but resting on general 
principles. The Ethics of Rest is a science they 
have appropriated unto themselves. They do 
say that men who love music and flowers will 
never make cowards or traitors. " La Fiesta 



206 Land Without Chimneys. 

de las Flares"— the feast of flowers, is held on 
Friday before Holy Week; " Viernes de Dolores' 
or Sad Friday. This fiesta was once held on 
La Yiga when every boat on the lakes took part 
in the decoration of everything and everybody, 
but Fashion 'has now decreed that it be he*d in 
the Alameda. The Alameda is the Charing 
Cross of Mexico. It is a park of forty acres 
that was once the site of the Inquisition, where 
Indians were barbecued because they did not 
accept the Catholic religion. The Inquisition 
held its last auto-da-fe and burned its last con- 
spicuous victim, Gen. Jose Morelos, in the Plaza 
as late as November, 1815 ! 

The Alameda has been the birthplace of gun- 
powder plots, and St. Bartholomew's days and 
revolutions all and sundry for many, many 
years, but now it is a peaceful pleasure 
park, beautiful with fountains, and aviaries of 
rare birds and redolent with orange blossoms 
and whatever the ingenuity of man can add m 
the list of charming flowers and shaded walks 
and shrubs that never know the sere and yellow 
leaf, and here on Viernes de Dolores, before 
daybreak the throngs pour in a steady stream 
of Indians from across the mountains and the 
dwellers from the plains and the lake dwellers are 
there and everybody has flowers. The patient 
burros have come laden with flowers till only 
their ears are seen. From away down on the 
coast, Jalapa lias sent two carloads of Jlores 
and everybody buys flowers and decorates and 
makes himself pleasant. No one must fail to do 
homage to Flora, the goddess of Jlores, and so 
garlands and wreaths and merry-makers make 
possible for the first time the extravagant dis- 



Within the Gates. 207 

plays I have so often seen on the drop-curtains 
of the opera house and thought were so impos- 
sible. The fountains were festooned and draped 
with the rarest of fragrant flowers, and rarer 
orchids, and every available place on person or 
thing was adorned, and two bands played al- 
ternately, and from early morn till late at night 
was one vast holiday. 

Then there is another Fiesta tie los Mores, a 
fiesta, but not a feast. This is the " Combate de 
Mores. " This is designed especially for the 
aristocracy and is held on Paseo deLa Reforma. 
It is a custom borrowed from Cannes or Nice 
and is exactly what the name implies, a combat 
of flowers. The line of battle extends from the 
statue of Charles IV to the gates of the castle 
of Chapul tepee, over two miles. The carriages 
are all decorated with flowers, an as they pass 
and repass each other the occupants pelt each 
other with flowers. The ladies in the balconies 
along the Paseo also take part. The hour for 
assembly is 4 p. m. A double line of cavalry 
extends clear to Chapultepec. At each glorieta 
is a military band. The sidewalks are jammed 
by an admiring multitude who watch the car- 
riages pass with their occupants resting literally 
on a bed of roses with which to pelt each other, 
to finally stop at the statue of Cuauhtemoc' 
where the prizes are to be given to the best 
decorated carriages. The prizes were escritoires 
m ebony, bronze vases, statuettes and diplomas 
of honorable mention. The carriages were trans- 
formed into crystallized dreams. 

One lady, whose name was Concha, had a 
carriage body of an immense white shell of 
eglantines and white and cream roses. Another 



208 Land Without Chimneys. 

was a cornucopia, of sea- weed and palms inter- 
locked with flowers of every hue. President 
Diaz and his wife appeared in an undecorated 
carriage, possibly to save the enibarrasfnient of 
the jury in distributing prizes. And what more 
esthetic and harmless recreations could we have 
than the utter abandon with which these people 
enjoy the blessings of life and nature? Our 
lives have little enough of sunshine sifted into 
them, and we might learn some valuable lessons 
from these tropic people how to get our quoto of 
real joy out of three hundred and sixty-five 
days. The fountain of youth which Ponce de 
Leon sought in vain is here discovered, happi- 
ness. 

The drainage of the city is not good, and 
were it not for the altitude, the death rate here 
would be terrible. Imagine yourself in New 
Orleans, and find yourself suddenly lifted a mile 
and a half in mid air, and you are in the City of 
Mexico. The air is rare and pure. A corpse 
could be left out of ground any length of time 
and would not decompose, but would only dry 
up. Fresh meat never spoils, and vegetables 
simply grow old and refrigerators are unknown. 
There is no winter, no summer, but the rainy 
season from May till September is followed by 
the dry season. During the rainy season you 
may expect a shower once a day, lasting per- 
haps an hour, perhaps ten minutes, and then 
the sun shines again. The nights are glorious 
with southern constellations, and Polaris and 
the Southern Cross are both seen, but the handle 
of the great dipper is broken off below the 
horizon. 

You wear the same clothes the year round, as 



Within the Gates. 209 

the climate is the same. After four o'clock you 
must put on wraps, for the nights are always 
cool enough to require blankets every night 
in the year. The Mexican made shoe is an in- 
strument of torture which nobody would endure 
but a Mexican, because he has never seen a bet- 
ter. High heel and tooth-pick toe, throws all 
the weight in a pointed toe which must hold 
twice its normal capacity. The unsightly gait 
the women make with this uncomfortable shoe 
is distressing, and to add to the torture they do 
not wear stockings — so I am told. My own 
shoes wore out and I tried in four cities, with- 
out success, to buy a pair of low-cut shoes. We 
wear them for the comfort they bring in hot 
weather, but they have none, so they do not 
make low-quarter shoes. You never see perspi- 
ration on a person's face here, no matter how 
violent the exercise. 

The Mexican chews tobacco — -never. He smokes 
tobacco, always, men, women and children, on 
the street, in the theater, at the table — every- 
where is the deadly cigarette, and they inhale 
the smoke and emit it from the nostrils. The 
Pullman car is the only place where it is neces- 
sary to display the sign " No se permitir fumar." 
The matches are wax tapers and double enders. 
When a person asks for a match, he lights one 
end and puts it out, and always returns you the 
unused end.. Such a match will hold a blaze a 
minute. High caste ladies do not smoke in 
public. The floors o£ the cars and other public 
places are pitted as though they have had the 
small-pox where smokers have thrown their 
half -burned matches which burn long enough 
to scorch the floor. 



210 Land Without Chimneys. 

The theaters are built after our style except 
that every tier of seats is divided into boxes 
holding six chairs. Everything goes well until 
the last act, when a porter calls upon you politely 
for six cents for the use of the chair, and then 
you learn that the j)riee of the ticket does not 
include a seat, and that a seat concession goes 
with every theater. You may stand if you pre- 
fer, but a Spanish play is no shorter than an 
English one. In the front center of the stage 
is the prompters stand. Through a trap-door in 
the stage near the foot-lights his head projects 
above the floor and is concealed from the audience 
by a tin cornucopia opening toward the stage, 
so he can be seen as well as heard by the actors, 
but he can also be heard by the audience as he 
prompts their half-learned lines. 

Kerosene at fifty cents a gallon is the universal 
public illuminator, and the empty five-gallon 
cans with the U. S. brand are met with every- 
where. 

Sept. 16 is Independence Day in Mexico,and its 
observance is worthy of note. Its birth was sim- 
ilar to our own, and the child of oppression from 
the mother country. Spain prohibited the Mexi- 
cans any trade whatever with any other country 
but Spain under penalty of death. No schools 
whatever were allowed except in charge of the 
priests, who suppressed every branch of useful 
knowledge. No manufactures of any kind were 
allowed if Spain could produce and sell the 
article, and nothing was allowed to be planted 
in the rich soil that Spanish farmers in Spain 
could sell in Mexico. In 1810, a patriotic Cath- 
olic priest, Maguel Hidalgo y Castella (Hidalgo 
his father's name, Castella his mother's) with a 



Within the Gates. 211 

desire to benefit his starving countrymen, in- 
troduced the silkworm and planted vineyards. 
These industries were promptly destroyed by the 
Spanish officials, and thus were the seeds of 
rebellion and liberty planted. 

Hidalgo had been among his countrymen and 
organized a rebellion. On the night of Sept. 15, 
1810, it was whispered to Hidalgo that his plans 
were discovered and the government forces were 
inarching on him. With swift decision he had 
the church bells of Dolores to sound the danger 
signal, and when the alarmed population 
reached the plaza, they found their priest with 
torch and musket. With burning words he 
told them of their wrongs and discovered plans, 
and at that strange hour and in the darkness 
where one could not distinguish friend or foe he 
gave the famous griio, Mexico's Declaration of 
independence: "Long live our Mother, most 
holy Guadalupe! Long Live America! Death to 
bad Government! " 

Thus, in that modest hamlet, now known as 
Dolores Hidalgo, was set on foot the revolution 
which eleven years later gave Mexico her inde- 
pendence, after three hundred years of oppres- 
sion and cruelty never equalled before in any 
other country. And now, on the night of Sept. 
15, you may witness the most remarkable cele- 
bration among liberty-loving people. Before 
night the tri-cclor is displayed "from every 
building, and across the streets are hung in- 
numerable Chinese lanterns ready for lighting. 

As night advances, the ten acres of the Plaza 
Mayor becomes a seething mass, just as it was 
that memorable night of Noche Triste three 
hundred and seventy-six years ago when the 



212 Land Without Chimneys. 

Aztecs drove the Conquistadors from this very 
plaza beyond the city gates. As the hands of 
the great clock in the cathedral slowly move, 
those ten acres of faces are turned upon its illum- 
inated dial and all voices are hushed. As the 
hands come together, a magic wand is touched 
somewhere, and ten thousand lights flash on the 
scene from a thousand beacons. The string of 
Chinese lanterns sway across the streets. Immed- 
iately that sea of faces is. turned to the opposite 
end of the Plaza facing the national palace. 
Like a scene from "Dore's Last Judgment," 
those silent faces, in the lights and shadows of 
the illumination, point southward, waiting 
Hidalgo's hour. Exactly at eleven o'clock, ap- 
pears the soldier-president, Porfirio Diaz, bearing 
above his head the banner of red, white and 
green, and from under its folds launches forth 
again the grito that for eighty-seven years has 
been their war-cry : " Mexicanos! Viva Idepen- 
dencia! Viva La Republica! " Instanter the 
trumpets blare, the cannons boom, martial 
music is set free, the bells from the towers give 
tone and the heavens are lit with the glare of 
fireworks that rival the halcyon day s of Popocat- 
apetl. Ten thousand resound the glorious call. 
" Viva Mexico! Viva Independencial" until 
the very soul of every freeman instinctively cries 
in its own language, " Viva Independencia! " 

The next day the grand review of the army 
takes plaee, and promptly at ten o'clock the 
regulars of the infantry and cavalry pass by in 
new uniform, but their glory is eclipsed when 
two thousand rurales, the finest horsemen in 
the world, flash by in their buckskin uniform^, 
the silver sheen of their trappings glinting in 



Within the Gates. 213 

th? sunlight on horses that know every water 
hole and aroya from the Eio Grande to Tehuan- 
tepec. For a whole week these light-hearted 
people celebrate with balls and banquets and 
fireworks and fiestas and the poor are remem- 
bered with gifts from the president's wife. 

Hidalgo was a martyr to his cause, and with- 
in eight months his head hung from the castle 
walls of Chihauhua, but now rests in the Cathe- 
dral under The Altar of Kings. Iturbide took 
up his fallen sword and in 1821 entered the 
capital at the head of his victorious troops and 
was hailed as "El Libertador, ' ' and was crowned 
as the first Emperor of Mexico. Santa Anna 
headed the revolution that banished him, and 
on his return in 1824 was shot as is the custom 
with Mexico's rulers. 

But there is another day as dear to Mexico as 
September 16, and that is July 18, the day 
when Juarez died. Benito Pablo Juarez 
(Whareth) was a full blood Indian, born in Ix- 
tlan in the state of Oajaca, in 1806. From 
1847 to 1852 he was governor of Oajaca and was 
banished by Santa Anna. He returned in 1855 
and joined the revolution of Alvarez which de- 
posed Santa Anna, and after continual fighting, 
was declared president in 1861. Immediately 
he issued a decree suspending for two years all 
payments on the public debt. Forthwith Eng- 
land, Spain and France sent a combined army 
to seek redress. England and Spain soon with- 
drew, but Louis Napoleon, taking advantage of 
the civil war in the United States, and presum- 
ing that the disrupted union could never 
enforce the Monroe Doctrine, «. declared war 
against Mexico and offered the throne to Arch- 



214 Land Without Chimneys. 

duke Maximilian, of Austria, as Emperor. For 
seven years were the contending armies in the 
field, but in 1867 Maximilian was taken prison- 
er and shot at Quetaro, and Juarez ruled su- 
preme. And then that Aztec Indian by one fell 
stroke lifted the pall from his much warred 
people and did an act which astonished the 
world. For three hundred and fifty years had 
the Catholic Church misruled and despoiled 
Mexico. The people were taxed to the starving 
point to enrich the priests. It was the Catholic 
Church of France that had placed Maximilian 
on the throne, and the Catholic Church of Mex- 
ico that kept him there and fought his battles 
against the liberty-loving Indians. 

Three-fourths of all the lands and property of 
Mexico were deeded to the church free of taxa- 
tion, and when the "Procession of the Host" 
passed along the streets, every foreigner or skep- 
tic who did not at once kneel was in danger of 
the Inquisition. This was the state of affairs 
in 1867, but Juarez faltered not. All the vin- 
dictiveness of his race was kindled when he 
thought of the tale of bricks that had been re- 
quired of them under Spanish rule and in that 
supreme moment he divorced church and state, 
and confiscated all the church property to the 
state. No thunderbolt could have been more 
swift or more obedient than his decree. Every 
convent, monastic or religious institution was 
closed and devoted to secular purposes. Every 
religious society of Jesuits and Sisters of Charity 
was banished from the county. So thorough 
was his work, that now no convent or monas- 
tery can openly exist in Mexico, and no priest 
or nun or Sister of Charity can now walk the 



Within the Gates. 215 

streets of Mexico in any distinctive article of 
dress to distinguish them from any other citizens. 

Catholic worship is still permitted in the 
cathedral, but the Mexican flag floats from the 
tower to show that it is a state institution and 
can at any time be closed or sold or converted 
into any use the government sees fit, and that 
the clergy and priests are "tenants at will." 
All those rites which once supported the claims 
of the Catholic Church to omnipotence are now 
performed by the state. The civil authority 
performs the marriage ceremony, registers 
births and provides for the burial of the dead. 
Marriage ceremony by the priests is not pro- 
hibited, and they are legally superfluous, but 
those who cling to the old, first secure the state 
rite and afterwards seek the church service. 
The church controlled all educational institu- 
tions, all public opinion and the keys of heaven 
and hell. 

When the soldiers of Juarez pulled down the 
fetishes of the Indians, the Indians stood 
speechless expecting fire from heaven to consume 
them for sacrilege, for thus they were taught by 
the priests. The exiled monks cursed them for 
anathema maranatha and prophesied that the 
earth would open and destroy the despoiled, but 
the soldiers laid paved streets across the yards 
of convents that had witnessed crimes and de- 
bauchery in the guise of holiness in the 
"Ketreats" that would smell to heaven, and not 
a soldier was engulfed. For the first time the 
ignorant people learned that the priesthood was 
not infallible, that the fear of the church had 
no terrors to this Indian president, and the old 
Aztec spirit returned, and for the first time the ve- 



216 Land Without Chimneys. 

neer Christianity of the Catholic faith showed its 
shallow depths, and the disappointed adherents 
lifted not a finger against this dark-skinned 
iconoclast. The church at that time owned 
eight hundred and sixty-one large country 
estates valued at $71,000,000. Twenty-two 
thousand lots of city property valued at $113,- 
000,000 and other property not listed, making a 
total of $300,000,000, and the revenue of the 
clergy from the people direct was $22,000,000 
annually, which was more than the income of 
the government from all its customs and internal 
taxes. By the irony of fate, Protestants who 
before this were not allowed in the country, now 
bought from the state this very property. 

Thus, the former spacious headquarters of the 
Franciscans with one of the most beautiful 
chapels in the world, fronting Calle de San 
Francisco, the most fashionable street in Mexico, 
was sold to Bishop Riley, acting for the American 
Episcopal mission, at the price of $35,000, and 
is now valued at over $200,000. Likewise in 
Puebla the American Baptists have bought the 
old palace of the Inquisition, and a similar 
palace in the City of Mexico is now a medical 
college. The national library occupies an old 
convent, and a large share of its treasures were 
confiscated from the Eoman churches. Since 
1867 Protestant churches are springing up every- 
where, where it was worth a man's life to propose 
such a thing before. Previous to this so per- 
sistent was the church that the national seal 
bore the legend: " Religion, Union and Lib- 
ert}^," placing the church first, and even after 
Mexico secured independence the seal remained 
the same. 



Within the Gates. 217 

Juarez was both a Washington and. a Lincoln 
to Mexico, and so when July 18th comes around 
to mark the day of his death, frdm Dan to 
Beersheba is one vast blast of bunting and fire- 
works. I was in the capital on that memorable 
day when the city put on its holiday dress to do 
honor to the name of Juarez and t@ strew flowers 
on his grave. 

All lovers of liberty were given an opportunity 
to hear the eagle scream. President Diaz was 
the chief figure in the procession and was the 
first to lay his offering on the tomb, followed by 
the members of congress, the diplomatic corps 
and the military bodies. The stars and stripes 
were there of course, and the Spaniards were 
there in numbers. Two hundred and fifty Cu- 
bans had a place in the procession, each with a 
miniature flag of Cuba on his coat and "Cuba 
Libre" on his badge. They objected to the 
Spaniards on the ground that the celebration 
was in honor of liberty and a patriot, to neither 
of which virtues could Spain lay claim while 
Cuba was breathing her life out in a death 
struggle, and the police had to intervene to pre- 
vent blood-shed over the patriot's grave. 

By the decree of Juarez, there came to Mexico 
freedom from a worse slavery than that which 
darkened our shores; the slavery of the Romish 
Church. The Catholic religion still prevails, 
but it is a Juggernaut with pneumatic tires, and 
it runs a course lined with bayonets. There 
are millions of benighted adherents yet under 
the spell of the priesthood, but Protestant 
churches are springing up everywhere with the 
free bible. After the wonderful achievements of 
the Juarez administration, it seems remarkable 



218 Land Without Chimneys. 

how conspicuous by its absence is the Indian 
face from public affairs in Mexico. She has a 
standing array of over 4 5,000 men, but all its 
officers are white, and the same is true of the 
police force, and the military bands whose rank 
and file are of Indian blood have the leaders 
white. The students of the military academy 
are white, so are all members of congress, the 
superintendent of public works and all places of 
trust, although legally, every man of age is 
privileged to vote and hold office. 

But behind the law are the leges non scriptce, 
the spirit of social caste, as broad as the leagues 
of territory, and as powerful as a Corliss engine. 
The Indian's face is no debar from good society 
nor a residence in any part of the city where he 
may buy, but the old regime of Spaniard and 
Indian, master and servant, has taken deep root 
and is still as powerfully in evidence as in the slave 
states of America. Of the twelve million inhabi- 
tants, one-third, are pure Indians, speaking a 
hundred and twenty different languages. One- 
half are Mestizos or mixed races, and the re- 
maining one-sixth are foreigners, the Spaniards 
predominating, and the remnant is the govern- 
ing power. 

Public opinion in Mexico has been defined as 
" the opinion entertained by the president;" and 
this is almost absolutely true, if you may also 
add a few thousand land owners, professional 
men, professors and students. The rest do not 
count. No such thing as a public mass meeting 
to discuss public questions has ever taken place 
in Mexico. A presidential canvass simply means 
that the candidate who first gets control of the 
army gets elected, but a 



Within the Gates. 219 

While every adult male citizen has a right to 
vote, less than thirty thousand votes are cast in 
a presidential election, and the great mass of 
the people never know there is a change unless 
there is a revolution. 

One day before the election I saw a two-line 
announcement in an American paper published in 
the city which said: "Tomorrow the citizens 
of Mexico will elect a president." Early the 
next morning I w r as on the street expecting a 
great excitement or patriotic demonstration, but 
not a cog of that great wheel of industry missed a 
revolution. About ten o'clock I began to ask peo- 
ple about the election, but no one could give me a 
word of information. I went to the National 
Palace and everything was going on as usual. I 
asked a number of people where could I find the 
voting places, but got no information whatever, 
and I began to think the announcement was a 
canard. Two days afterwards I was in the 
state of Vera Cruz and saw in another paper 
the following election news: "Porfirio Diaz 
was unanimously elected president of Mexico 
for the fifth time." That was all. I had been 
on the streets the whole of election day and 
could not find a single person who could tell me 
of the election. 

To differ in speech or newspaper from the 
policy of the party in power is to prepare your 
own grave for treason, or for banishment, so 
those who have a grievance against the govern- 
ment have no recourse by electing a better 
governing power, so they simply wait till they 
feel strong enough and find a man to issue a 
11 Pronunciamento," and a revolution is born, 
and sad but true, there is no other way. Free 



220 Land Without Chimneys. 

speech and mass-meetings and opposition can- 
didates are unknown except at the point of a 
bayonet. Excepting Juarez, the Indian, Porfirio 
Diaz — who is part Indian of the same tribe as 
Juarez— is the most progressive president the 
country has ever had, and the constitution was 
changed so he might succeed himself and thus 
complete the good work he inaugurated, but 
Diaz's first term was gained at the head of a 
revolution. He was a candidate in 1871, and in 
the election only 12,661 votes were cast, of 
which Juarez received 5,837, Diaz 3,555, and 
Lerdo 2,874. Diaz refused to abide by the de- 
cision and issued a manifesto and entered the 
capital at the head of an army, assumed the 
presidency, had the people ratify his proceed- 
ings, and then proceeded to build railroads and 
encourage foreign capital to come in and rehabili- 
tate the wasted country, and, regardless of f ear 
or favor, has created the modern Mexico. So 
successful was he that the people decided it was 
better to keep him than have the annual revolu- 
tion, so the constitution which Juarez had 
framed was changed to permit him to succeed 
himself, which he has done so well that he is 
serving Ins fifth term, but not all consecutively. 

Cardinal Newman once said: "To be per- 
fect, one must have changed often." If that be 
true, the government of Mexico ought to be 
pluperfect by now. Since her Independence in 
1821, she has had fifty-seven presidents, two 
emperors and one regency, and with possibly 
four exceptions, each change of administration 
•w T as attended by violence. 

In 1818 occurred the first change without 
violence, but Arista was banished in the next two 



Within the Gates. 



221 



years, and in the next three months there were 
four presidents, which brings the average up to 
normal. What a bonanza for the Salt River 
candidates of the United States ! 

When you visit the picture gallery of the 
National Palace, the guide will say: "This is 
president so-and-so, elected at such a date, and 
who was shot at such a time. And this is presi- 
dent so-and-so, who was shot at such a date." 

All the leaders of the war of Independence 
were shot, so were both the emperors, and nearly 
all the presidents were shot or banished. These 
presidential shooting matches have made the 
country a land of experts in teaching the young 
idea how to shoot. Whenever the winning man 
has secured the army and re-entered the capital, 
the other fellows, in the language of General 
Crook, "rise like a flock of quail and light run- 
ning." 




CHAPTEB XIV. 

THE TRAIL OF THE TANGLE-FOOT. 

ON THE plains of Tlaxcala, Apam and 
Puebla, in the rich lava beds, and on the 
desert which is so poor one can hardly 
raise a disturbance on it, are millions of acres 
of land devoted to the culture of the maguey 
and the preparation of one of the vilest drinks 
known to man. 

The century plant, the agave, the aloe and 
the maguey are one and the same. It is called 
century plant, because outside of the tropics it 
might live a hundred years and never bloom, 
like our Louisiana sugar-cane; but here in Mexico 
from six to fourteen years are sufficient for its 
maturity, as it requires that much time to 
accumulate enough vitality for its crowning 
effort in life — the propagation of seed. When 
it has reached this stage it shoots up a central 
stalk a foot in diameter and twenty feet high, 
crowned by a panicle of beautiful greenish-yel- 
low flowers, and then the plant dies down as 
completely as any annual. 

But the pulque farmer does not permit the 
plant to blossom. Y/hen it shows indication of 
shooting up its central bud as large as a cabbage, 
the same is cut out, leaving a cavity capable of 
holding four or five quarts. Into this cavity 



The Trail of the Tangle-Foot. 228 

the sap collects and is sold as agua miel or 
honey water. After twenty-four hours fermen- 
tation it becomes pulque, the national drink of 
Mexico, for, of the 350,000 inhabitants of the 
capital, 250,000 are pulque drinkers. A single 
plant can be milked five months and in that 
time will produce one hundred and sixty gallons 
of pulque. Each morning a small army of 
pulque gatherers will enter the field with long 
calabashes or gourds, through which they suck 
up the pulque on the siphon principle, and inject 
it into the pig-skin bottle held on the back by a 
band around the forehead. This skin-bottle is 
the same that is mentioned in the New Testa- 
ment and is secured entire from the animal, and 
with the ends at the hoof tied and loaded with 
pulque, has the exact semblance of a hog on a 
man's shoulder. The pulque must reach market 
the same day it is gathered, as it becomes vine- 
gar within twenty-four hours, so special pulque 
trains run on all roads entering the city. 

Seventy five thousand gallons is the daily 
consumption in the City of Mexico, and the 
railroads make a thousand dollars a day for 
carriage, and the custom houses collect on each 
gallon as it enters the garitas or city gates. 
When the sap first appears it is greenish in color 
and sweet, hence its name of agua miel, or 
honey water. Carbonic acid soon collects as 
fermentation advances, and then it is called 
pulque. Pulque has the color of soapsuds, 
almost the consistency of molasses and a com- 
pound taste not found in the dictionary nor 
listed in Materia Medica. As to smell, it is a 
cross between a slaughter house and a compost 
heap of decaying vegetables. Fermentation is 



224 Land Without Chimneys. 

so rapid it would explode a cask in a few min- 
utes, so the gatherers empty it from the pigskins 
into tinnacals or ox hides strapped to a wooden 
frame. To retard fermentation, it is poured 
into vats and a little milk and rennet are added, 
which do not quite coagulate it, but give it the 
aromatic odor of Limburger cheese. From these 
vats it is loaded on the trains and hurried to the 
city where it is again transferred in pigskin to 
wagons loaded with hogsheads with the bung 
open . In front of the retail pulqueria , the wagon 
stops and the final unloading begins. A hogs- 
head ds turned on its side at the rear of the 
wagon and the spigot is pulled, and the ropy 
liquid is passed through a large funnel into a 
pigskin on the ground, by passing through a 
leg. This pigskin holds as much as a beer keg, 
and when full, the huge porter replaces the 
spigot, wraps a string around the leg and 
shoulders the pig which looks natural enough to 
squeal. The porter empties this into five or six 
huge casks which are setting on the counter, 
where the dealers dole it out at a cent a glass 
to the hundreds who push and fight for standing 
room until the last cask is empty, and a similar 
scene will take place every clay in the year. 

Just opposite my window I watched a crowd 
for hours that had overflowed the sidewalk 
struggling to get inside and they did not thin 
out till ten barrels had been emptied, which 
means five hundred gallons. And the same is 
true for every pulqueria in the city from the 
time the first train load arrives till every cask 
is empty. Pulquerias have no written sign, but 
over each door is a plaited awning of green 
maguey leaves which has all the power that an 



The Trail of the Tangle-Foot. 225 

electric lamp has to swarms of night insects. 
At one cent a drink, even the paupers can get 
gloriously inflated, and it takes half the police 
force to drag off those who find the streets too 
narrow for their new style of perambulating. 

The ordinary simon pure pulque is just liquid 
filth, no more, no less. Private families remove 
the Limburger essence by means of a harmless 
chemical and add sugar and orange juice, but 
the dealer at the pulque joint knows better; 
he adds a quantity of marihuana to the cask, 
and presto ! he has the regulation Kentucky 
tangle-foot, warranted to kill at forty rods. 
With one or two drinks of this, the Mexican's 
eyes look two waj^s at once, and he just spoils 
for a fight, and at once hunts some one to dis- 
agree with him. He will walk up to a stranger 
and look him over in a zigzag way and say: 
" Viva Mejico" The other fellow was just 
out hunting ducks himself, so he replies : " Viva 
JSspania" or " Viva Cuba Libre," and then 
their heads and feet change places, and when 
they come to their senses they are lying on the 
soft side of a stone floor in the "husga" and 
wondering " Who struck Billy Patterson." After 
witnessing the surging, seething mass of frenzied 
men and women with their savage Indian nature 
all ablaze with pulque, no one longer wonders 
at the large number of police he meets. The 
government is absolutely powerless to stop the 
sale of drugged pulque, and the number of 
deaths annually from pulque fights is inert dible. 
In one year, the number of fights with knives 
alone was over six thousand in the capital. 
I know of no more dangerous animal than a 
Mexican loaded with pulque and marihuana, 



226 Land Without Chimneys. 

face distorted and blood-shot eyes aflame, and a 
knife in his belt. Blood is his glory and he 
loves a long knife which he can throw thirty feet 
with the accuracy of a pistol bullet. 

Outside the cities the duello is the code of 
honor and the long knife the peacemaker. 
Among the cow boys and miners the friends of 
each tie their left hands together and stick a 
bowie-knife in the ground by each and walk off. 
The one that lives longest may cut the cords 
and come back to camp. If neither returns the 
boys know that they crossed the Styx together. 
Pulque is not the only drink made from the 
maguey, it is only the swill of the great un- 
washed. For the more epicurean tastes the 
root of the plant is roasted and distilled and 
from the product is a fiery liquid, which for 
courtesy is called mescal, but in reality is molten 
lava, and its nearest kia is another distillation 
called tequila, which is almost pure alcohol. 
They are sold in saloons at three cents a drink, 
and the American who attempts to wrestle with 
the monster takes a glass of mescal and a glass 
of water and tries to swallow them both at the 
same moment in order to keep the lining of his 
throat from scalding off as the lava goes down. 
The native, to show his contempt for the method, 
will look you in the eye and drink the fiery 
liquid without water. It brings water to his 
eyes, and the clotted blood-shot spots appear 
almost as rapidly as the slnules of a chameleon 
on a rose bush. I saw a maniac suffering with 
delirium tremens from mescal, and a more pitiable 
object I have never seen. How he pleaded and 
begged for three cents, offering his soul in 
exchange just for one more drink before he died. 



The Trail of the Tangle- Foot. -227 

I went to a restaurant and got him some soup 
and it had the effect of water upon a hydropho- 
bia victim and I can only liken him to a caged 
hyena. 

The maguey must not he called a profligate 
because it gives birth to live different intoxi- 
cating drinks; it serves other purposes as well. 
From the leaves the natives thatch their houses, 
and the spines make needles and pins. The 
fibre of the leaf is used in making rope, wrapping- 
twine, hammocks, sisal, mats, carpets, hair- 
brushes, brooms, Jbaskets, paper and thread, 
firewood, and from the roots a very palatable 
food is made, and upon its bountiful leaves there 
feeds an army of green caterpillars about the size 
of your middle finger, and epicures do say that 
when they are properly stewed and set before 
you that you forget all about clam -bakes and 
gumbo soup and shrimp-pies and edible birds' 
nests and just concentrate your mind upon the 
gusanas de la maguey, to all of which I say 
amen. I had to concentrate all of my attention 
and other things, too, to prevent a violent 
volcanic eruption just looking at the tempting 
morsel. I do not doubt the epicures in the 
least ; on the contrary, I had so much faith in 
their judgment that I was willing to take their 
word without the caterpillars. But I did eat one 
dozen — by proxy, that is paying for them and 
enjoying that consumptive Mexican's appetite 
as the whole dozen followed each other down 
the chute, but I might add, I had to put a 
weight on my stomach to avoid — well a catastro- 
phe. 

The maguey is absolutely independent of rain 
or moisture. It grows on the mesa that does 



228 Land Without Chimneys. 

not get a rain in six years. It is a bulbous 
plant and multiplies by suckers set in holes. 
The usual method is to take a crow-bar and dig 
a ho'e among the rocks and give it just enough 
earth to hold the roots and it will do the rest. 
There is nothing more beautiful than a maguey 
farm on the plains of Tlaxcala, with the plants 
set ten feet each way and spread over the plain 
for forty or fifty miles. The plants are so green 
they seem to have a blue tint, and the rows are 
so symmetrical, no matter which way you look, 
your vision will focus to a point in the distance 
where all rows converge to the vanishing point 
like the rails of a railroad on level ground. For 
a hundred miles south of the capital, every 
available rod of ground is planted in maguey 
which grow-? without any cultivation whatever, 
and will yield to the farmer ten dollars to the 
stalk during the single five months of its pro- 
ductive period. No field gets ripe at once. An 
acre with several hundred sta'ks may not have 
two dozen to come to maturity this year, and as 
soon as they are exhausted new bulbs are set in 
their stead, which makes a perpetual orchard. 
A plant that is to mature this year is easily 
known by the bleaching of the leaves as it yields 
its last vitality to the central bud. 

Whenever the train stops, hordes of women 
gather around to sell to the passengers from 
earthen-ware vessel* at a cent a drink. As the 
passenger lifts the putrid liquid, the dripping 
vessel leaves a trail of viscid streamers, like the 
gossamers of the bridging spider, or the saliva 
from an ox under the yoke, and especially if the 
wind is blowing, the network of stick}?- pulque 
streamers from car windows is just about as 



The Trail of the Tangle-Foot. 229 

pleasant as the opening chorus of a candy-pull- 
ing, or the closing scene at a turpentine still. 

In the families of the Spanish and French, 
pulque is never taken, but wines, champagne 
and sherry, are the household drinks, and the 
great national drink of America, lager beer, is 
slowly adding the dignified William goat and 
the overflowing schooner to the pictorial deco- 
rations of the Mexican house-fronts. The 
amount of liquid refreshments these people, es- 
pecially the women, can embrace within their 
anatomy is astonishing. The dinner hour is 
prolonged from one to two hours in conversation 
and guzzling, and when a gentleman sees a 
lady's glass empty at any part of the table, it 
is customary for him to walk around to her 
chair and fill the glass from his bottle ; and these 
opportunities are eagerly sought by the watch- 
ful men, as it indicates a lack of attention to 
permit a lady's glass to become empty. But I 
have never seen this class of people drunk or 
tipsy. The liquor must be very weak to permit 
so many bottles being emptied without a knock- 
out. 

A young Mexican at Guadalupe attempted to 
make his national drink aristocratic by giving 
it a lofty name. ' He asked me if I would not 
seal our good friendship by joining him in a 
glass of vino bianco. I told him I did not know 
what white wine was, as red was the only fast 
color the Americans patronized, but I would seal 
the friendship all right and let him drink for 
both of us. To this he raised not a particle of 
objection. I doubt if any such magnanimous 
windfall had ever come his way before when he 
could drink for two. He landed me in a pulque 



230 Land Without Chimneys. 

joint and this was my awakening to the vino 
bianco. 

I had come in search of knowledge, and found 
it by inepvns of my nose, which I had to hold 
while I grandiloquently told him to "tank up." 
The proprietor brought him a half gallon rancid 
soapsuds, which he first offered me. I backed 
off and told him I had not done a thing to him 
to deserve such punishment, and besides, soap- 
suds more than a week old always went against 
my constitution and by-laws, and that I was 
subject to heart-failure anyway, and had to 
guard against undue exertion, such as vomiting, 
etc. He said it was not soapsuds, but "vino 
bianco," (pulque neuva), and if I did not be- 
lieve it was new pulque, just smell. I told him 
that was exactly what ailed me now, I had 
smelled and was leaning against the counter on 
account of it, and if he would just let me off 
I would burn a candle to his choice saint. After 
my friend had "tanked up'' and swallowed 
most of the fragrance, I was able to stand up 
once more, and then I very kindly asked that 
proprietor if he did not think that stuff was ripe 
enough to bury. I said, "Sir, in my country 
when a corpse is kept till the flies swarm in the 
house, it is a sure sign that it is time for the 
funeral. Now sir, just look at the flies." "O 
yes," said he, " los muscos love vino bianco 
also, and they come because they know a good 
thing when they se — smell it." Now what was 
the use of wasting logic on this logician ? So 
my friend and I entered the street. It was a 
warm day, and while we had argued, I think the 
heat had contracted the street. At any rate it 
was much too narrow for my friend and his vino 



The Trail of the Tangle-Foot. 231 

bianco, and he and a lamp-post had quite an 
argument about who had the right of way. 

I think the post must have hit him below the 
belt from the way he fell out, and with the 
guilt of the act resting so heavy on my con- 
science I fled from the scene and vowed I would 
never buy soapsuds any more for my poor, mar- 
tyred Guadalupe guide. 




CHAPTER XV. 

THE CITY OF THE ANGELS. 

LA PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELOS is the 
authorized version of the sacred city, 
but ' ' Puebla" serves for all ordinary uses. 
This city is seventy-five miles southeast of the 
capital. It is not on account of its transcen- 
dent beauty or rare virtue that it is called the 
City of the Angels, but from its wonderful 
history, woven into mystic legends by the zeal- 
ous priests. And for the story-: 

1 ' Once upon a time, ' ' as all good stories should 
begin, the Indians saw angels hovering over the 
place when it was an Indian village, before the 
Conquest, and hence its name. Another version 
is that one of the good bishops was looking for 
a site on which to build a town, and in his 
dream saw a vision of two angels measuring 
town lots on the border hills of a beautiful plain, ■ 
and went right out and found \he pl^ce where 
Puebla now stands to agree with his dream, and 
forthwith founded the city. Still a more recent 
explanation is given, that when they were build- 
ing the church, angels built as much wall by 
night as the workmen built by day; and if you 
are disposed to doubt the statement, why, they 
show you the church itself, which ought to con- 
vince the most skeptical. 

232 



The City of the Angels. 233 

The cathedral is built of massive basalt, and 
is thought by many to be much finer than the 
cathedral of the capital. It fronts the Plaza 
Mayor, and is built upon a platform of porphyry 
with Doric and Ionic superstructure. The in- 
side is bedizened with glitter and tawdry jim- 
cracks as usual, entirely out of keeping with the 
beauty and magnificence of the building. The 
main altar is gilded with gold to the value of a 
hundred thousand dollars, and before Maximil- 
ian's time there hung from the ceiling a famous 
chandelier of pure gold, also valued at a hun- 
dred thousand dollars. The church party was 
backing Maximilian, so the lamp was melted 
into coin to pay the army. In the towers are 
eighteen bells, the largest weighing ten tons. 
Why these churches have so many bells that are 
not rung, and have no chimes is another of the 
unanswered questions, and must remain so un- 
til the last call. The pulpit is of pure onyx, 
and the floor of glistening marble, and over the 
door-way is the insignia of the Golden Fleece. 
The two grand organs are encased and decorated 
with as fine work of sculpture as can be found 
anywhere, and the walls are lined with costly 
paintings. Of course here is shown a piece of 
the original crown of thorns. 

In the church of San Francisco is a doll brought 
over by Cortez and carried by him through 
all his campaigns. It is an image of the Virgin, 
and the benighted natives venerate it as though 
it were a god, and this is but an index to the 
Christianity of the country. The name of 
Christ is rarely heard, and the name of Jesus is 
so secular that you may go into a hotel corridor 
and say "Jesus!" and a half dozen men will an- 



234 Land Without Chimneys. 

swer and come to yon. Go into any crowd and 
say the same word, and there will always be 
some one named Jesus, and possibly several. It 
is rather painful to your piety to have some 
bandit try to pass a pewter quarter on you or to 
keep the odd cents in a trade, and then to know 
the rascal is named Jesus Maria Magdalene. 
There is not a Christ Church to be found in all 
this land of churches, and as a means of saving 
grace, Christ is not counted. In the Mexican 
Catholic Church, the people pray to the powers 
in the order of their importance; first to the 
Mother of God, " Most Holy Mother," second, 
to the saints, and lastly they mention the name 
of the Infant Jesus as being the son of Mary. 
In the prayers and in the sermons and in the 
paintings he is always figured as an infant in 
the arms of the Virgin, or the Man of Sorrows 
with his heart on the outside of his anatomy. 
After looking at a thousand such pictures one is 
tempted to believe that the X ray is not such a 
modern innovation after all. In the case of the 
twelve stations on the march to Calvary, with 
the aid of red paint all the horrors and mental 
anguish that the human frame can endure are 
displayed in life-size as a scourge to the laggard 
believer. 

I do not fancy the poetry of Burns, but these 
grewsome images of wax and papier mache with 
the real thorns on his head and the red paint 
gore dripping everywhere, always recall the 
lines : 

u The fear o' hell's the hangman's whip, 
To haud the wretch in order." 

The impression it always makes on me is that 
the threat is always implied: "If you do not 



The City of the Angels. 235 

repent, you will be treated in the same manner, ' * 
and I honestly believe the Indians so interpret it. 
In the nave of these churches are hung the 
twelve apostles, in all stages of ancient martyr- 
dom and modern dilapidation. Statues with 
broken or missing legs and streams of red paint 
gore pouring in congealed rivulets from Roman 
scourges and spear-points savor more of the 
bull-ring than of a sanctuary. On the altar is a 
copy of the Holy Bible containing the Old and 
New Testaments, translated out of the original 
tongues, and with the former translations diligent- 
ly compared and revised; but out of its lids of 
solid silver bedecked with ribbons and symbols, 
they hear not a w T ord of christian living, nor of 
the beautiful life of Christ, nor of their duty to 
their fellow man, but prostrate before these gory 
statues the worshipers go round and round, 
counting their beads and crossing themselves 
and gazing upon the ghastly anatomies before 
them, and this is their worship. If they are op- 
pressed with the weight of earthly sins they are 
told to pray to the Holy Mother of God to inter- 
cede with St. Peter in behalf of the afflicted 
one, and in addition to burn candles upon the 
altar of Saint Francis or Saint Xavier, who have 
the contract to use their good offices in behalf of 
the sinner, said sinner guaranteeing to burn so 
many candles in acknowledgement, which 
candles can be had from the church commissary 
two doors to the rear on the right. And this 
is the substitute the Aztecs got by renouncing 
their idolatry. They asked bread and received a 
stone. 

Puebla is called the City of the Angels, but it 
ought to be called the City of Churches. This 



236 Land Without Chimneys. 

was always the bulwark of the Church of Rome 
in the New World and was the last to succumb 
to the new order of things under Juarez. This 
is the city that backed Maximilian in his fight 
against the patriots and quartered the French 
army for seven years, and where the auto-de-fe 
of the Inquisition was pushed with all the zeal of 
Torquemada. When Juarez destroyed the 
church party, Pueblo had a dozen nunneries and 
as many monasteries, with all their concomitant 
cess-pools of vice, as Maria Monk so vividly 
describes in her Montreal experience. Under 
the liberal educational crusade of President 
Diaz, the people are becoming too enlightened 
to ever revert to the old regime. 

Puebla is a city of a hundred thousand inhab- 
itants and ranks as the fourth city in importance. 
It is the market for the beautiful onyx which is 
mined near the city. It is in a fertile valley, and 
for miles and miles to the rim of the mesa lies 
one of the most, beautiful scenes within the 
Republic. Three volcanoes and three other 
snow-capped peaks overlook the city. From 
Mount Malinche the city I think gets its pure 
water brought by aqueducts. Puebla is the 
key to the country in time of war as it commands 
the approach to the sea. It was captured by 
Iturbide, Aug. 2, 1821 ; by Scott, May 25, 1817 ; 
occupied by the French, May 5, 1862; captured 
by the French, May 17, 1863 ; Recaptured by 
the Mexicans, Apr. 3, 1867. The old fort on 
the Hill of Guadalupe must be visited. Here 
the Mexicans under Porfirio Diaz defeated a 
veteran French army May 5, 1862, and earned 
their right to the national holiday of " Cinco de 
Mayo." 



The City of the Angela. 237 

Though the city is over seven thousand feet 
above the sea, the valley produces everything, 
wheat, rye, cochineal, maize, cotton, sugar, rice, 
tobacco, coal and iron, stone quarries, and lime 
and kaolin for porcelain, dye woods, and all kinds 
of tropical fruit in luxuriance, and the valleys of 
alfalfa feed the finest beef steers it has ever 
been my good fortune to see. The city was 
built in 1532 and is a model of neatness, and as 
no animal matter decomposes at this altitude 
the presence of disagreeable odors is unknown. 
Six railroads enter the town and the tramvias 
lead to many interesting suburbs. Twenty-five 
miles away is Popocatepetl, but with no forest 
or hill bt tween the city and the volcanoes to pro- 
portionate the distance, it hardly appears five 
miles. If \ou wish to ascend the volcanoes, the 
Inter- Oceanic train stops at the small station of 
Amecaraeca at the foot, where guides and a two 
days' supply of provisions are furnished. 

Here upon the second highest mountain in 
America, and the third highest in the world, 
you may sit in the snow and cool yourself off 
after the exertion of the climb. I cooled off at 
the bottom and climbed it by proxy. My proxy 
said the view from the crater was magnificent 
and I felt satisfied. The street-car line that 
leads to Cholula passes over the Atoyac near 
the city across a very quaint, old arched bridge, 
built when the city w x as born. About five hun- 
dred yards to the right of the track is the 
natural wonder of Coxcomate. From the car 
window it looks like a pile of white stones or a 
well bleached ha\ stack, but on a nearer ap- 
proach it proves to be a tumulus of white cal- 
careous stone, evidently of water formation, 



238 Land Without Chimneys. 

about fifty feet in height and a hundred in 
diameter at the base, and the form is that of a 
truncated cone. At the apex is an elliptical 
opening, twenty-five feet along its minor and 
fifty along its major axis. It is a bell-shaped 
cavity and lined with ferns of various descrip- 
tions. The depth is about a hundred feet, and 
its width along the bottom about sixty. On one 
side of the bottom is a mass of gorgeous ferns, 
and on the other a pool of water. 

Of course Coxcomate has it legends. One is 
that the Aztecs were wont to worship the genius 
of this spot, and occasionally to throw in human 
victims to appease his subterranean majesty. 
It is also said that the Spanish Inquisition used 
to cast in heretics and leave them where they 
could calmly meditate upon the controverted 
points of doctrine. Whatever its former u*e, it 
is a curious freak of nature, situated in the 
midst of a level plain. It seems to have been a 
volcanic bubble, of which there are many in 
this country. 

From Puebla a branch road takes us to Santa 
Ana, and a tram-way from there to ancient 
Tlaxcala, the capital of Tlaxcala. Tlaxcala 
was a republic in ancient times, as were also 
Cholula and Huexotzinco, and these were life- 
long enemies of the Aztecs ; and it was by fan- 
ning this blaze that Cortez united them to 
conquer the Aztecs, and to the Tlaxcalans is due 
the credit of the Conquest. They wt re faithful 
to the uttermost to the Spaniards, and in the 
first defeat gave Cortez a home and haven un- 
til he could collect another army, and again fol- 
lowed him, this time to victory. Cortez always 
appreciated this kindness, and it is here in 



The City' of the Angels. . 239 

squalid little Tlaxcala, degenerated into a vil- 
lage of five thousand diminutive people, that 
more relics of Cortez are found than at any 
other place. 

The municipal palace contains four oil paint- 
ings bearing the date of the Conquest, and the 
banner of Spain which Cortez carried through- 
out his conquering career. The material is of 
heavy brocaded silk which sadly shows its age. 
It is nine by six feet, cut swallow-tail and is 
nearly perfect, though approaching four hundred 
years old. The iron spear-head bears the 
monogram of the rulers of Spain, and the origi- 
nal staff, now broken, is kept with it. Immense 
sums have been offered for it from Spain, but 
the Tlaxcalans refuse all offers. Here are also 
the arms of Tlaxcala, illuminated on parchment, 
and bearing the signature of Charles V., and 
the standards presented to the chiefs by Cortez, 
as well as the robes in which the chiefs were 
baptized. Here also are a collection of Tlax- 
calan idols and the treasure-chest of Cortez, 
which was locked by four different keys and 
could be opened only when all four guardians 
were present together. Here is to be seen the 
oldest church in Mexico, San Francisco, built 
three hundred and eighty years ago, under 
plans furnished by Cortez himself. The roof is 
supported by carved cedar beams brought from 
Spain, and in a little chapel is the original pulpit 
from which the Christian religion was first 
preached in the new world. 

Here of course you see the crude figures of 
bleeding saints and sublimated martyrs and 
harrowing crucifixions, painted in all their 
mangled horrors to hold in awe the superstitious 



240 



Land Without Chimneys. 



native. As the Greek boasts forever of Mara- 
thon and Thermopylae, so with the Tlaxeaians 
in their departed glory. A more squalid lot 
cannot be found than upon the sun baked mesa 
of Tlaxcala. Living in adobe huts and filth 
and rags, it requires the light of history to con- 
vince you that these were once warriors second 
to none in the valley, who boldly met the Span- 
iards in open battle when first they saw each 
other. 



©ffe 




CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 

u Nations melt 
From Power's high pinnacle,when they have felt 
The sunlight for a while and downward go." 

EIGHT miles from Puebla in the midst of 
the vale of Atoyac stands the sphinx of 
Cholula, a pyramid covering forty-four 
acres of ground, whose base is one thousand four 
hundred and twenty-three feet and whose alti- 
tude is one hundred and seventy-seven feet, with 
a truncated apex two hundred feet square. This 
was once crowned by a temple, but now by a 
church called Nuestro Senora de los Remedios. 
The City of Cholula was the sacred city of the 
Aztecs, but the pyramid antedates their tradi- 
tion. When it was built, by whom and for 
what purpose will not be known till the sea 
yields up its dead, but there it stands built of 
brick, twice larger than Cheops, and so over- 
grown with trees that it looks like a natural hill. 
A winding road with steps leads to the top, 
whence a view of the whole valley is to be had. 
With his usual exaggeration, Cortez said that 
from its summit four hundred heathen temples 
could be seen. At present the town of Cholula 
contains about six thousand inhabitants, and I 
counted only fifty-four church steeples seen from 

241 



242 Land Without Chimneys. 

its summit, of course omitting those visible in 
Puebla. Naturally Cholula has its legends, and 
what ancient edifice has not ? The Aztecs knew 
nothing of the history of the pyramid. Accord- 
ing to Toltecan tradition, it was built by the 
followers of Quetzacoatl. Among all nations of 
Anahuac, the god of air was Quetzacoatl, 
" Feather-decked-serpent," the great, good and 
fair god. He had been a high priest in old Tollan, 
and according to all the statues representing 
him, was bearded and had a white skin. He 
was a god of peace and discouraged war and 
animal sacrifice, and introduced the culture of 
maize and cotton and the smelting of metals and 
the working of stone. When he wished to pro- 
mulgate a law, he sent a hero whose word could 
be heard a hundred leagues away to proclaim it 
from the summit of Tzatzitepetl, <; The moun- 
tain of clamors." Under his tutelary care, 
maize grew to such a size that a single ear was 
all a man could carry, and cotton grew with all 
the colors already in it. In a word, the Aztecs 
believed that the reign of Quetzacoatl was the 
golden age of the country. 

Tezcatlipoca (fhining mirror) was the prin- 
cipal god next to Teotl, having descended to 
earth by means of a spider's web. He fought 
with the high-priest Quetzacoatl, and then told 
him it was the will of the gods that he journey 
to the ancient kingdom of Tlapallan. Quetza- 
coatl was escorted out b} T a number of people 
singing hymns, and finally reached Tolula. His 
gentle manners and integrity won the hearts of 
the Cholulans, so he dwelt with them and 
taught them the arts of civilization, the smelting 
of metals, the weaving of cloth and the making 



The Pyramid of Cholula. 243 

of delicate pottery. After a sojourn of twenty 
years at Cholula, Quetzacoatl decided to continue 
his journey to Tlapallan and departed toward 
the sea, saying he would return. Gradually the 
report spread that he was dead ; he was then 
proclaimed a god by the Toltecs of Cholula, 
and was afterwards proclaimed protector of the 
city, in the center of which they reared the 
pyramid to his honor and crowned the top with 
a temple. In this temple was an image of the 
"god of the air," wearing a mitre on his head 
waving with plumes of fire, and around his neck 
a resplendent collar of gold, in his ears pendants 
of mosaic turquoise, in one hand a jeweled 
sceptre, and in the other a shield, curiously 
paii. ted, the emblem of his rule over the winds. 
The sanctity of the place and the magnificence 
of the temple spread, until the worship of 
Quetzacoatl was shared by all the nations of 
Anahuac, and Cholula became a Mecca, the 
Holy City of the Valley. 

Quetzacoatl created a new religion based on 
fasting, penitence and virtue, and he belonged 
to another race than the one he civilized, but 
what was his country? In all the Aztec writ- 
ings and on all his statues he is called " the fair 
god," and when Cortez landed in Mexico, Mon- 
tezuma refused to make war upon him, saying, 
"It is the return of Quetzacoatl." The Cholu- 
lans forgot the art of war in the pursuit of the 
arts of peace as taught by Quetzacoatl, and 
Cholula became the great emporium of the 
plateau. Cholula became a dependency of the 
Aztecs, and this gave oifence to the Tlaxcalans, 
the bold Swiss mountaineers of Anahuac, who 
were the enemies of the Aztecs. So when 



24:4 Land Without Chimneys. 

Cortez arrived and conquered the Tlaxcalans, 
they were only too willing to join him against 
the Cholulans. It was in 1519 that Cortez se- 
lected six thousand Tlaxcalans and a large 
number of Cempoallans and marched against 
the city of Cholula. Cortez had been invited 
by the ruler to visit the city and was the guest 
of the nobility, but here is shown one of the 
blackest spots in his entirely perfidious charac- 
ter. Cortez left the main part of his army out- 
side the city with instructions to rush in when 
the signal gun should be fired, and to weave 
sedges around their heads so as to be distin- 
guished from the Cholulans in the slaughter. 
The next morning he had his men to conceal 
their arms and assemble around the great square. 
He then sent word to the princes and all persons 
of distinction in the city that he desired a con- 
ference with them in the square, and they came 
to d\) honor to their invited guest, followed by 
the thousands, curious to look upon the strange 
horses and fair-skinned strangers. Then Cortez, 
to make a pretext for his deed, accused the 
chiefs of plotting treachery against him, and at 
the signal, his army closed in the three sides of 
the square and began the slaughter of the un- 
armed inhabitants. All the accumulated hatred 
of the Indian allies was let loose in this hour of 
vengeance. All within the square were slaugh- 
tered, including all the persons of distinction of 
the republic, and then the butchers with fire 
and sword spread through the streets of the 
city, and to the summit of the pyramid. 

The statue of Quetzacoatl was thrown down 
and robbed of its treasures. The temple was 
fired, and in the blaze of its destruction the 



The Pyramid of Cholula. 245 

savages, both Spanish and Indians loaded 
themselves with booty from the thrifty Cholu- 
lans, and with his sword in one hand and the 
crucifix in the other, the missionary bandit, 
Cortez, offered the remaining inhabitants a re- 
spite if they would accept baptism and acknowl- 
edge the King of Spain as their sovereign! 
Under the guise of friendship, and while accept- 
ing the hospitality of his host, this Christian 
savage stooped to a perfidy which the natives 
scorned. 

This sacred city whose court magnificence 
rivaled the pomp of Montezuma's capital became 
a Golgotha. Upon the top of the pyramid where 
was the temple, stands a catholic church, and in 
front an ancient cross which the priest told me 
was almost as old as the Conquest. At the 
northeast of the the plaza where the massacre 
occurred stands the Church of Seven Naves, 
which was built by the special order of Cortez 
from models of the Cathedral Mosque of Cordo- 
va in Spain. The chapel has sixty-four sup- 
porting columns, and the small mullioned win- 
dows and Moorish frescoes give it a repose of 
perfect harmony with its peaceful environments. 
I sat in the plaza that had once flowed in blood. 
It was July 18, and the populace was celebrat- 
ing the anniversary of the death of the patriot 
Juarez, and as the glare of fire-works cast un- 
natural shadows among the stately trees, I was 
reminded that Cholula once furnished the toys 
and fire-works for the whole valley. This in- 
dustrious people was called in derision "the 
race of traders;" and even as I sat, the keen- 
eyed boys detected the presence of strangers 
and scented a trade in "antiquias." After throw- 



246 - Land Without Chimneys. 

ing a few stones at a tree, they leisurely drifted by 
me, and finally returned, and mysteriously dre 
from their pockets curious toys and fragment 
of pottery in a pattern different from any no 
made, and declared them to be "antiquias viejagj 
de Cholula." These people are up to date and| 
can make you a relic to order if they only knowj 
what you want, and will date it back as far as 
you wish ; but these were the simon-pure article', 
of Cholula as she was in her halcyon days. 

"Near Cholula are smaller pyramids very simi : 
lar to those of the Mound Builders of the 
Mississippi Valley. Stretching across the 
fertile valley the shadows point to Popo- 
catapetl, only six leagues away, but the di- 
aphanous atmosphere would make you believe 
it only one. The ancient capital is now 
a compact village of six thousand people, 
as silent and, bereft of enterprise as though 
it dwelt under the spell of the Enchanted 
City in the Arabian Nights. The young men 
were discussing the independence of "Cuba 
Libre;" the women were at church, and the 
Indian women from the hills, with their babies 
strapped to their backs and their bare feet 
upon the pavement, glided more like phantoms 
of a vanished race than realities of the present. 
Though 380 years have passed since that awful 
remembrance, its every aspect seems to accent 
its Bartholomew's day. The silence is oppres- 
sive, so we climb the pyramid to view the valley, 
and such a view! To the north six leagues is 
Tlaxcala; to the south and reaching the horizon 
an endless valley ; to the east, Puebla and the 
gateway to the gulf; and to the west the two 
snow-capped volcanoes, and within these boun- 



The Pyramid of Cholula. 



24? 



daries a garden spot that equals the valley of 
Mexico. . 

Throughout this broad expanse are hamlets 
and orchards and pastures and fields of ever- 
green maguey and cochineal, cactus and tropical 
fruits. The scene is like a picture or the mi- 
rage of some unseen habitation. The animals 
and men in the distance creep like insects m a 
pantomime. Not a column of smoke to denote 
the presence of a factory nor the revolution of 
a single wheel of commerce. A blast of a tin 
horn from the horse-car tells us this is the last 
car to Puebla tonight, and we leave the beauti- 
ful sunset glistening from the snow-elad peak 
r>f Popocatapetl, and leave the unsolved riddle 
of the pyramid to the ages. 




CHAPTER XVII. 

LAS TIERRAS CALIENTAS. 

TO THE "Hot Lands," we leave Puebla by 
the Inter-Oceanic railroad and make the 
wild ride to the city of Vera Cruz. The 
first part of the journey is across the mesa of 
burning sand and bare rocks. Soon after leav-/ 
ing the city we pass the mount of Malinche,; 
which supplies the city with water. Malinche 
is the name given to Cortez soon after he! 
reached Mexico. For miles and miles not a tree; 
graces the landscape. Now and then a brilliant 
cluster of morning glories appear, but they are 
shrubs and not vines. The geranium also ap* 
pears, and no longer a shrub, but almost a tree 
twenty feet high. Flocks of discouraged sheep 
and very earnest cattle seem to be devoting all 
their attention to eating sand and rocks. Of 
course it is contrary to custom for these animals 
to make a steady diet off this kind of fodder, 
but with my most earnest investigation it was all 
I saw for them to eat. A sparrow could be 
seen anywhere on any given acre of ground. 

A few shepherds wrapped in scrapes were 
constantly on the watch to keep the gaunt and 
restless wanderers within their imaginary 
boundaries, for it was contrary to custom to 
allow one flock to eat the sand that belongs to 

248 



Las Tierras Calientas. 240 

another. The miserable huts of the natives are 
measured by the length of the discarded cross- 
ties of the railroad. A quadrangle of these 
stuck a foot in the ground and thatched with 
maguey leaves and the citizen is " at home." 
So is the donkey or whatever other animal he 
possesses. Sometimes he has several razor- 
back pigs tethered by a foot to the end of a 
rope and they root in the ground and hone their 
backs against the cross-tie that answers for a 
door-post and are happy. As the train approaches 
a station, scores of women and girls press 
around the car windows beseeching the passen- 
gers to buy fruits at the first class cars, and 
cooked provisions at the second and third. The 
most of the first class passengers are Americans, 
and as a rule the}^ do not invest heavily in Mexi- 
can provisions. They say it requires too much 
faith to eat them. 

And pulque. How could we get along without 
the fragrant pulque ? With a large earthen jar 
in her left hand, and a small one without handle 
in her right, she anxiously seeks purchasers. 
AY lien a purchaser is found, down goes that right 
hand, fingers and all to the bottom of the jar, and 
as it comes up full, the white, ropy fluid frescoes 
with its sticky streamers everything in reach. 
In their anxiety to out-sell each other, the 
anxious eyes are scanning every window for 
engagements while the right hand mechanically 
is immersed to the wrist in the larger vessel. 
At one cent a drink, and often as many vendors 
as purchasers, two or three cents is the average 
revenue these people make from a train that 
passes only twice a day. It is sad to see the 
hungry pleading eyes of these half-naked women 



250 Land Without Chimneys. 

as they in vain offer their scanty wares to people 
who do not buy. I have bought food from one 
of these beggars and given it to another just to 
see them eat, and no starved beast could have 
shown greater hunger and zeal with which they 
picked up every crumb from the ground. 

In the cities beggars are kept scarce by the 
police, but on these plateaux they swarm, and 
grown men and women will crowd around the 
train, and their clothing would not average two 
yards to the person. Only twice did I see beg- 
gars attempting to offer an equivalent for the 
alms they begged— at La Barca on the Mexi- 
can Central Road where two blind beggars with 
cracked voices and rheumatic guitars inflicted 
the painful combination upon the unoffending 
passengers. I think the grimaces were given 
without charge, and only the music was expected 
to be paid for, but I am sure my coppers were 
given for the heroic efforts of that face to reach 
the sublimity of the music. The face was al- 
ways about three and a half flat keys below the 
instrument, and the much abused instrument 
made no attempt to catch up with that wonder- 
ful voice, but plodded along with her "reglar 
steady " for all pieces. Those three organiza- 
tions covered the whole baseball diamond in 
their progress, but they all gob together nt the 
home base, and while the worthy Mrs. Beggar 
collected the pennies, the crowd cheered the 
first warbler and called for the second. Each 
one had the pitch that belonged to the other 
fellow's songs, but the crowd got it all anyway 
so what was the difference ? Anyway they 
were the only beggars that offered a quid j>r<> 
quo and the crowd forgave them much, even as 



Las Tier r as Calientas. 251 

they had sinned much against the musical pro- 
fession in traveling on the high C's without 
any chart. 

Out of pure charity I took one of the Mrs. 
Beggar aside and very softly asked her if she 
did not think an ordinary three-cornered file 
would help her husband's voice and also 
his throat. The word '- ' throat ' ' was my Water- 
loo. Lifting her coal black eyes to mine she 
looked the thanks she uttered as she said: 
"Lord, senor, a thousand thanks, that is the 
very thing, he has not had a square meal today." 
When will people learn that everything intended 
for the throat is not to be eaten? Such gross 
ignorance discourages my good Samaritan im- 
pulse and seriously interferes with my work as 
a reformer. The same thing happened at a 
restaurant where the same dish of butter had 
kept guard on the table so long that it was 
being consumed by its own inactivity, and was 
making itself felt further and further from its 
base of operations. Out of pure charity for my 
fellow boarders, I heroically made a martyr of 
myself and relieved the old guard which " died 
but never surrendered," so the other fellows 
might have a fresh dish, and what was the 
result? Bismillah! that eagle-eyed waiter 
reported that I just actually made my living off 
that brand of butter, and next meal the old 
guard had been replaced by a whole pound of 
the same vintage but more vigorous and loud. 
Such ignorance leads people to misinterpret my 
noble motives. Now, here I was trying to make 
good music for coming generations, hy offering 
that old lady a file to rasp down the nightin- 
gale's fog horn, and she thinks I am so entranced 



252 Land Without Chimneys. 

with the unearthly music that I want to show 
my appreciation by giving them a cubic meal. 
Alas this thankless world! It was ever thus. 

I said they were the only beggars that paid 
for their alms, but I make one exception. Be- 
tween Guadalajara and San Pedro a beggar has 
a gold mine. Not what you would call a gold 
mine, but it is one for him. He has a fortune 
in his knees, which got on the wrong side of his 
legs, and as the street-car stops to change mules 
he painfully hobbles on crutches to the car, 
makes his exhibit, collects the coppers and hob- 
bles back to his seat to wait for the next car, 
and he never utters a word. He has what 
ordinary people call "a sure thing." He always 
made me think of the tramp and the dog. The 
dog found the tramp in the hay-mow and 
growled. The tramp said: " Good doggie, good 
doggie," and the dog wagged his tail but kept 
growling. The tramp said: "It may be all 
right, but I don't know which end to believe." 
So every time my beggar friend turned his face 
away from the car, his knees and feet seemed to 
try to come back, and I did not know which end 
to believe. This beggar question is too large 
and has made me wander away from my subject. 
I was talking about the women sousing their 
dirty hands into the pulque, but small matters 
like that do not count. The old saw is still in 
vogue, that we must all eat our peck of dirt be- 
fore we die, and so we in Mexico just eat our 
peck and get the dreaded duty from our minds. 

There are many more miles of desert and pas- 
tures where the cattle still feed upon sand, and 
then we come to the fortress of San Juan de Los 
Llanos. In the midst of the desert where it 



Las Tierras Calientas. 253 

never rains, and where there is no green thing 
in sight, lies this huge fortress of St. John of 
the Plains. For four hundred years this has 
been the King's highway from the gulf to the 
capital, and all the treasures of gold and silver 
to Europe, and of merchandise /roia Europe 
have had to pass along here in caravans of pack- 
animals and armed escorts. This road was a 
veritable Captain Kidd's treasure-house to the 
hundreds of bandits that have swarmed through 
this country, so it is no more of a policy than 
necessity that the soldiers are here. 

We are now nearing the rim of the plateau 
and pass through miles of rich mining country 
until we leave the state of Puebla and enter the 
state of Vera Cruz. We are a hundred miles 
from the sea and eight thousand feet above it 
on the backbone of the Cordilleras. Around us 
is white frost, and in four hours we shall be in 
perpetual summer. We are above the clouds 
and everything is invisible. The clouds envelop 
the train like a pall, and we are conscious of only 
one thing; we are plunging down the mountain 
with breaks down, and with the descent of one 
hundred and thirty-three feet to the mile. A 
rift in the clouds discloses a semi-tropical forest, 
and upon every tree are myriads of beautiful 
orchids of blue, red, scarlet, orange — every color 
and in the greatest profusion. A thousand feet 
below is a little town we are trying to reach. 
The train approaches it first on this side and 
then on that, and winds down the mountain in 
a kind of spiral, and at last stops at the station. 
Above us is the track we have just left, and if a 
rock was loosed from it, it would fall upon the 
roof of the train at the station. There is one 



254 Land Without Chimneys. 

place on the road where a stone dropped from a 
car window would hit the track at two separate 
levels. It is a journey one never wants to take 
twice by daylight. If you pass the dangers at 
night you save the nervous speculation as to 
what would happen if a wheel should break on 
the brink of a chasm a thousand fett deep, and 
a floating cloud conceals the nature of the rocks 
you would land upon in the awful depths below. 

Every few hundred yards by the track are 
wooden crosses and stone cairns. I ask my 
neighbor: " Porquelas crucesV He devotedly 
crosses himself and mentions them as unfortu- 
nate meeting places of travelers and bandits, 
and after the meeting the traveler still re- 
mained. Every one who passes considers it his 
duty to add a stone to the cairn. 

At the stations the half-clad natives, shiver- 
ing in the chill mountain air, offer food and 
beautiful flowers for sale. Orange blossoms 
from the valley and a dozen other rare blossoms 
the foreigner has never seen, and the beautiful 
orchids with the roots done up in leaves are 
offered for a real, (12^ cents) which would cost 
five or six dollars at an American florist's. 

Down, down we go, through dark canons and 
over spider bridges and below the clouds. Now 
our wraps are uncomfortably warm and we lay 
them aside and open the windows. From every 
where comes the odors of rare tropical flowers 
and the iridescent rays of beautiful butterflies, 
and we are half down the mountain at Jalapa 
(Halapa). Jalapa is a city of fifteen thousand 
population, and was once the capital of Vera 
Cruz and lias much to endear it to the tourist. 
As the train stops you enter a street-car drawn 



Las Tierras Calientas. 255 

by six mules which will carry you to town on the 
hillside of Meniltepec. When you wish to come 
back to the train, the brakes are set and the car 
will bring you back itself, and the mules will be 
down after a while to draw it back. It is a 
regular toboggan affair, and you feel as if you 
were shooting the chutes, were it not for the 
heavy bumpers that would stop you were the 
brakes to give way. I think the Mexican style 
of carrying the babies slung over the back 
must have originated in Jalapa. If a nurse 
should undertake to roll a baby carriage, and 
while talking to a policeman should let the 
buggy get a start, down any street, it would 
shoot the chute for Vera Cruz on an incline of 
thirty degrees. 

Before the Inter-Oceanic Rail Road was com- 
pleted the street-cars ran to Vera Cruz, seventy 
miles away, and all the company had to do was 
to mass their mules in Vera Cruz and their cars 
in Jalapa and start the cars on schedule time 
with enough brakemen to prevent a hot box. 
The streets are not quite as crooked as a cork- 
screw, and not quite as straight as a cow-trail 
when she is grazing, and starting from the top, 
each first floor window looks out upon its neigh- 
bor's house-top. It rains here about eight days 
in the week. The town is four thousand feet 
above sea level,, and just behind it is the Copre 
de Perote peak, thirteen thousand four hundred 
and three feet high, and plenty high to catch 
the rain clouds from the gulf. When they 
strike the jagged edge of this toboggan slide 
which holds Jalapa, they simply disgorge and 
go back for another load. They seem to be a 
very faithful, conscientious set of clouds that 



256 Land Without Chimneys, 

put in a good day's work and never grumble 
about working over-time or the agitation of an 
eight hour system. I got tired carrying my 
umbrella. It would rain half an hour and sun- 
shine half an hour till the next cloud got snag- 
ged on that mountain, and so between them 
there was no rest for my umbrella. I am always 
full of good motives and advice, and the same 
work a lawyer wants ten dollars for, I distribute 
with a lavish ha — mouth. Armed with my good 
intentions and my dripping umbrella, I called 
upon a member of the city council and sug- 
gested the idea of filing off the rough edges of 
^he mountain so it would not snag the clouds 
and drench the people so often, but my words 
and good intentions were all wasted. Those 
citizens have been sliding down hill so long and 
been drawn up again by mules, they have no 
energy whatever, and would never climb that 
mountain till they got street-cars up there. And 
besides, if the cloud system was altered they 
would have to establish a different sewer-system, 
and that means work, and of course they would 
not. 

These clouds have done one thing though, 
they have banished the thatch roof, and every 
house is built of stone and roofed with half- 
cylindrical brick tiles which project a full yard 
over the eaves. This constant drizzle has killed 
the usefulness of the old and tried friend — the 
almanac. You don't have to ask when it will 
rain for you know it will rain in half an hour. 
Then it is no pleasure looking in the almanac 
to see when the first frost will fall so wo can 
gather chestnuts or pecans, because frost never 
conies, and fall never comes, and winter never 



Las Tierras Calientas. 257 

comes, but it just stays one eternal spring. The 
trees are always green and if a leaf falls another 
grows in its place, and if you pluck an orange 
another blossom springs out immediately, and if 
you cut a bunch of bananas, a new shoot starts 
up for another stem, and as fast as you pick the 
coffee berry, a perfect shower of snow white 
blossoms appear. 

There is absolutely no season. Four crops 
of corn can be grown, allowing ninety days to each 
crop. Sugar and coffee and tobacco are the main 
crops. The state of Vera Cruz borders the gulf 
for five hundred miles with an average width of 
seventy-five, and in all that territory, the soil 
does nothing but push things out. The Indian 
takes a sharp stick and makes a hole in the 
ground and drops a grain of corn, covering it 
with his foot, and ninety days afterwards he 
gathers his crop, and that is absolutely all 
he does in the way of labor. A banana 
stem will spring up eight or ten inches in diam- 
eter with several bunches of bananas and eighty 
to the bunch. He gathers them and knocks the 
stalk down and presto ! another springs from 
the roots, and this he does perpetually. 

The coffee plant is the most beautiful plant 
in this region, and bears till the slender branches 
touch the ground. The fruit is like our cher- 
ries or plums, and the natives eat it as we do 
cherries, and only the seed is sold for drinking. 
All around Jalapa in the forest grows the va- 
nilla vine so dear to the cake and ice-cream 
fraternity. The vine grows all over the forest 
like grape vines, and is not cultivated. The 
flowers are greenish yellow with spots of white, 
and the pods grow in pairs like snap-beans, six 



258 Land Without Chimneys. 

inches long and as large as your finger. They 
are first green and then yellow, and when fully 
ripe are brown. The pods are dried in the sun 
and then touched up with palm oil to make them 
shine. The Indians make a good living by 
gathering the pods and selling them in Jalapa, 
which is the chief market for vanilla. They 
also gather from these woods sarsaparilla, which 
has its home here. All druggists keep on their 
shelves a drug called Jalap, which grows here 
and gets its name from the old town of Jalapa. 
With pine-apples and plantains and limes and 
apricots and pomegranates and bread fruit and 
sugar and coffee and tobacco all growing at 
their doors, what wonder is it that the people 
all say, "Jalapa is a bit of heaven dropped 
down to earth." All they need is a tree to 
grow hammocks ready-made and swinging, and 
the millennium has come. It is situated near 
the foot of the volcano of Orizaba, the second 
highest mountain in America outside of Alaska, 
and the rich hills and valleys are covered with 
vast heaps of volcanic tufa and ashes which are 
natural fertilizers. 

The American army on its march from Vera 
Cruz stopped here to shoot the chutes — and the 
natives — and exchange hospitality with them. 
The natives have a very vivid recollection of 
that visit, and on the principal street stands a 
tall granite monument with this inscription: 

"SACRED TO TUT] MEMORY OF THE NATION'S HKROES 

WHO T>1KD IN PRFKNHE OK THEIR COUNTRY 
A(i ATNST THE AMERICAN INVASION IN IS 17." 

The thing is so absolutely true and incisive 
that most Americans who read it like to quietl} T 
slip off to another street where there is no grim 






Las Tierras Catienias. 259 

accuser. Every time he looks dispassionately 
back at that war he feels like the big bully who 
slugged the little boy in the street just because 
the boy had spunk enough to fight back, and 
then took all his apples. California, Nevada, 
New Mexico and Arizona must always feel like 
blood money to the American people, as they 
were taken from Mexico to extend slave terri- 
tory. 

Santa Anna was born in this town, and the 
reckless traveling up and down these toboggan 
streets must have given him his dare-devil spirit 
which marked every stage of his eventful life. 

Jalapa is the summer resort of the moneyed 
people of Vera Cruz. Every May when the 
Yellow Fever awakes from his sleep in Vera 
Cruz, the brave citizens in a body back up 
the hill to Jalapa and shake their fists at him 
and dare him to cross the line, and the fever 
does not dare. They would simply pull a plug 
out of one of their special clouds and flood him 
back to the sea. There must have always been 
a city here; behind the present city are stone 
pyramids fifty feet high, and countless founda- 
tions of stone walls laid in cement. There are 
oak trees four feet in diameter growing through 
pavements laid in hewn stone and cement. The 
architecture is different from that of the Aztec, 
and there is neither language nor tradition as 
to who built these ancient ruins. They lie to- 
wards the coast between Jalapa and Orizaba. 

Tell it not in Gath, but they do say that the 
most beautiful women in Mexico live in Jalapa. 
" Bewitching, alluring are the women of 
Jalapa, " is what the natives mean when they 
say: "Las Jalapenas son halaguenas." Per- 



260 Land Without Chimneys. 

baps this accounts for the saying that Jalapa is 
a part of paradise let down to earth. The pre- 
vail ng type of beauty here is the blonde with 
blue eyes and brown hair, while elsewhere it is 
the brunette with black eyes and hair. After 
one has seen las Jalapenas halaguenas, the old 
churches and the musty paintings lose their in- 
terest. The old town shows its age probably 
more than any other in Mexico, and if these 
old stones could speak they might tell us of 
the building of Cholula. Whatever is old in 
Mexico is still older in Jalapa. Excursions to 
Coatepec and Jelotepec, about six miles a»vay, 
raay be made on horse-cars through tropical 
forests and coffee groves, and then we continue 
our tobogganing to Vera Cruz. On the down 
slide we pass Cerro Gordo, where General Scott 
defeated Santa Anna, April 18, 1847. He must 
have defeated the town too, for it is not 
there. A few mud huts are patriotic enough to 
remain and continue the name, for w r hich they 
deserve much credit. Perhaps they are guard- 
ing the place to preserve Santa Anna's wooden 
leg which was lost here in battle. They 
have not yet learned that it is in Washington 
City. 

We finally stow away our thermometer to pre- 
vent its meiting and running away. They say 
that straight down in the ground underneath 
Vera Cruz to an indefinite depth it is really hotter 
than Vera Cruz. Perhaps. Vera Cruz is a good 
place to stay away from. From May to October 
it is the summer residence of his majesty El 
Vomito Xeyro, a black vomit, familiarly known 
as Yellow Fever. This is not only his summer 
residence, but his permanent home, but during 



Las Tierras Calientas. 261 

the winter months he is "not at home;" but 
May 1st., on house-cleaning day, his residence 
is open to all comers, be they light-weight, 
middle-class or sluggers. He gives all odds and 
guarantees a knockout in the first round or 
forfeit the championship. 

During 1863-4 the French army planted four 
thousand soldiers in a little cemetery which 
they facetiously called "Ze Jardin iT Acclima- 
Uon" The Mexicans call it "Za Cindad delos 
Muertos" the City of the Dead. The population 
of Vera Cruz in 1869 was 13,492 and the number 
of deaths for the ten years ending in 1879 was 
12,219. The average duration of life by these 
figures was eleven years ! The annual death- 
rate is ninety per thousand population, while in 
the United States it is 22.28 per thousand. The 
safest way to see the city in the summer is to 
go in on the train, go out to the old castle of 
San Juan d' Ulloa about a mile out in the har- 
bor, climb to the light house and take a good 
look, then get on the same train and get up and 
out, or rather out and up. The town covers 
about sixty acres and has no suburbs but sand 
and water. An avenue of palms on th3 main 
street is the principal feature. If you stay till 
night you will see the raven hair of the Mexi- 
can ladies sparkling with gems, but they are 
only fireflies or " lighting bugs." Three or four 
of these tropical fireflies placed under a tumbler 
will give light enough to read by. They have 
a natural hook on their bodies, so they are fast- 
ened in the hair by this hook without pain to 
themselves. Our American cities are troubled 
about their street-cleaning department; but 
Vera Cruz has a street-cleaning commission 



262 Land Without Chimneys. 

that is a commission. Here they work without 
salary and only ask bed and board. The only 
other bonus they ask is that the city fine any 
person five dollars for killing any member of the 
commission ; which seemed only reasonable, so 
the city gladly consented, and now the agreement 
is entirely satisfactory to employer and em- 
ployee. 

The city council, on the city records, calls 
these commissioners Zopilotes, but ordinary 
people just call them turkey-buzzards. Their 
contract calls for bed and board — or tree. They 
find their board in the garbage piles and refuse 
heaps of the streets, and their bed on the church 
steeples and on the city hall and on your gate 
post or any other soft place where it is comfor- 
table to rest after a hard day's work. The city 
has not yet appointed a commision to clean up 
behind the commissioners, and if I should sug- 
gest the thing to them they would misunderstand 
my ideas of reform, so I will leave them to their 
fate and the heavy death roll which they will 
still charge to El Vomito and exonerate the 
Zopilotes. Owing to an oversight in drawing 
up the contract, no mention was made of nest- 
ing-places for the commissioners, and so they 
had to make other arrangements elsewhere, but 
where it is the deponent sayeth not. 

Their day's work was done and we saw that 
all the resorters had resorted to their resorts, 
so we resorted to the train, unpacked our 
thermometer and hied us away. Vera Cruz has 
had a monopoly of the shipping business, but 
has a rival now in Tampico. When you go to 
Tampico, you must tar and grease your hands, 
face and neck, then wear a pair of leather gloves 



I 



Las Tierras Calientas. 263 

and muzzle your face with wire netting. You 
may keep the insects off but you will smell like 
a barrel of train oil. The entomologists must 
have got tired classifying insects and dumped 
all the remnants at Tampico. One sociable 
little fellow has a habit of crawling under your 
toe-nail while you sleep and digging a hole till 
he is out of sight and then going to sleep. He 
has no special reason for this except to make 
you cut off your toe to get him out or to make 
you sleep in your boots. The monkeys and 
parrots are very sociable too, but familiarity 
breeds contempt. If I must associate with 
monkeys I prefer those with two legs so when I 
abuse them they can understand my wrath. 

For description of Tampico see Encyclopedia 
Britannica. Besides the Inter-Oceanic, there is 
another railroad entering Vera Cruz, the British 
road that was thirty-five years in building and 
cost forty million dollars. This road leaves the 
plateau at Boca del Monte (mouth of the moun- 
tain) eight thousand feet above the sea, and 
falls four thousand feet in passing over the first 
twenty-five miles of circuitous track, and it 
falls twenty-five hundred perpendicular feet in 
the first twelve miles, or two hundred and eighty 
feet to the mile. That tired, sinking feeling is 
very, very present when you start down. A 
double engine called the "Farlie," having two 
sets of driving machinery and the boiler in the 
center, pulls this train, and when it starts up 
hill it has to stop every ten miles to rest. The 
Britishers who built that road had faith and 
plenty of it. Below Orizaba, the road crosses a 
gorge a thousand feet deep, and was blasted 
from the solid rock. To do so, workmen were 



264 Land Without Chimneys. 

suspended by ropes over the cliff, and worked 
for hours with hammer and chisel. One piece 
of track clinging to the wall is not over ten 
rods long and required seven years to build. 
So costly was this road that when it was first 
opened in 1873 first class freight rates from 
Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, two hundred 
and sixty-three miles away, were $76 a ton on 
freight trains and $97.77 on passenger trains. 

Since Tampico is now a rival port freight is 
only $45 a ton and still the road hardly pays for 
its outlay. We soon enter the beautiful valley 
of La Joya (the Gem) and down, down below 
the clouds we pass through evergreen foliage of 
ferns and flowers that surpass anything in 
beauty ever attempted by brush and canvas ; 
mammoth ferns and tangled vanilla vines and 
other parasitic vines that coil around the giant 
trees and strangle them to death, and then feed 
upon the remains. Tropical birds of all colors 
and migratory birds from other lands are here 
without number. It is here the Indian hunter 
pursues his vocation of killing to make the won- 
derful featherwork, so salable in the capital, 
and just here we enter the beautiful city of 
Orizaba, the capital of Vera Cruz. 

Behind the city is the snow-capped volcano of 
Orizaba, eighteen thousand three hundred and 
fourteen feet above the sea, three miles and a 
half high. Violent eruptions took place here 
in 1545-6 but it has been on a strike ever since. 
Being the second highest mountain in North 
America, perhaps it is putting on airs. At any 
rate it is chilly enough now and the melting 
snows form innumerable cascades and waterfalls; 
and so the Ohicmec Indians called the volcano 



Las Tierras Oalientas. 265 

" Ahauializapan" or "Joy in the waters," but 
the Spaniards had neglected their pronunciation 
in their early youth and this was their Shibbo- 
leth, so they called it Orizaba and let it go at 
that. Earthquakes have always been a spec- 
ialty with Orizaba, and the largest church has 
had its steeples thrown down three times, and 
many others have a rakish, corkscrew perpen- 
dicular, which gives the impression that they 
have been on a jag or are trying to imitate the 
leaning tower of Pisa. A river runs through 
the town, and runs cotton and sugar and flour 
mills. Orizaba is exactly of the same altitude 
a3 Jalapa and what was said of the richness 
and fertility of that burg is true of Orizaba. 
Volcanic ash is the fertilizer which needs only 
moisture, which is abundant. The streets are 
paved with lava, and there are three schools for 
girls and two for boys. If you like mountain 
climbing, plenty of blankets, two days' provi- 
sions — and some silver — will take you to the 
crater of Orizaba, if your lungs can stand the 
rarified air. 

I also ascended Orizaba, and my proxy said he 
could almost see into the land of the almighty 
dollar, the vision was so grand. I felt happy. 
Delightful excursions through the pretty gar- 
dens to Yngenio, the lakes and mills of Nogales, 
to the innumerable cascades of Rincon Grande, 
Tuxpango, El Bario Nuevo and Santa Ana. On 
the way to these, the orchids and other floral 
beauties just beg of you to pluck them and thus 
make room for their companions. Down the 
mountain we glide with brakes set and enter 
the steel laces of the spider bridge across the 
Metlac and hold our breath to lighten our 



266 Land Without Chimneys. 

weight to the other side. We feel much better 
after we are over, and just beyond in the tropic- 
al vale of Seco is Cordova, on the border of the 
tierra caliente and tierra templada. We are in 
the same belt as Jalapa and Orizaba, therefore 
in the heart of the coffee plantations. The 
principal food of the lower-class is bananas. 
The banana is an annual that grows about ten 
feet high and about a foot in diameter before 
the bud appears, and then from the top springs 
a purple bud eight or nine inches long, shaped 
like a large acorn. This cone hangs from a long 
stem upon which a leaf unfolds, displaying a 
large cluster of young fruit. As soon as these 
have set, the leaf drops off and another unfolds, 
exposing another young brood of buds. When 
these set, the process is repeated until there are 
nine or ten circles of young bananas, and when 
complete the bunch has nearly a hundred ba- 
nanas, and the stalk never has to be replanted. 
It requires less attention and produces more 
than any plant known. 

If the coffee plant was allowed to grow with 
its own sweet will, it would become a tree thirty 
feet high, but then the berry would be hard to 
gather, so it is topped and pruned so as to 
spread laterally. The leaf is a shining ever- 
green, the flower is a snowy white star with the 
odor of jassamines, and the fruit is a bright red, 
turning to purple when ripe. The fruit looks 
much like a cherry and tastes as well, but this is 
not for what it is cultivated. Within the berry 
are two kernels or seeds with their flat sides 
adjoining, and enclosed in a thin pericarp. The 
fruit is spread in the sun to dry, and the outer 
surface is shriveled to a pulp, when it is re- 



Las Tierras Calientas. 267 

moved by the hand. The pericarp or thin husk 
still remains, and this is removed by being bro- 
ken between rollers and winnowed, and the cof- 
fee berry is ready for market. It must be 
shipped alone as it will absorb any and all odors 
with which it comes in contact, and a cup of 
coffee with a Limburger aroma is not a desired 
innovation. The Mexican prides himself on the 
superiority of his coffee bean, and all travelers 
praise the article as drunk a la Mexicana. 

A president of France once visited a village 
hostelry, and asked the woman in charge to 
bring him all the chicory she had in the house. 
After she had proudly delivered all her chicory 
to him he said: "And now madam, I will thank 
you for a cup of good coffee." The Mexican is 
not above deception, however. Parrots grow 
here by the million and paroquets by the billion, 
and in nearly all colors of the rainbow, but only 
the ones with the yellow head will ever learn to 
talk, and no color of paroquets will do more 
than chatter. But what is that small thing to 
a Mexican ? He simply gets a number of par- 
rots and a pot of yellow ochre, and in three 
shakes of a sheep's tail he has a cage full of 
yellow-head parrots worth five dollars each be- 
fore they learn to talk. They next spot the 
American "greenies" with money to burn, and 
the rest, is it not written in the book of a retri- 
butive Nemesis who recorded those blue streaks 
of profanity when that parrot got its first bath? 
Yea, verily. 

u In ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar." 

Bert Harte may come down here with his 
mandolin and pick that same tune in Spanish 
and he will receive an encore. 



268 



Land Without Chimneys. 



The Mexican will sell you "antiquias" from 
a pyramid that he made last month, and he will 
sell you a coffee-wood walking stick that was 
made from an old railroad crosstie and loaded 
with lead, and he will sell you a blanket he stole 
from you last night, but when you call for cof- 
fee you get the real article, and it is not pre- 
pared in either iron or tinned vessels, but un- 
glazed pottery. They fill your cup half full of 
coffee and half full of milk and pass you the 
sugar, and when you have done, like Oliver 
Twist, you call for more. 





















CATHEDRAL GUADALAJARA. 



CHAPTER XVII I. 

GUADALAJARA IN THE VALE OF LERMA. 

G\ UADALA JARA, which is reached by the 
r Mexican Central R. R. from Irapuata, 
* was built in 15 II and in importance 
ranks next to the city of Mexico. It is the 
capital of Jalisco, situated near the River Lerma, 
which here changes its name to Santiago, in 
the midst of a plain hemmed in on three sides by 
mountains, and on the fourth side is the Canon 
of Santiago and the jumping-off place to the 
Pacific Ocean. 

Being the only city of importance near the 
Pacific and never having had a railroad till 
1888, it is strictly a Mexican city without 
foreign tendency. The city is exceedingly 
beautiful, with streets crossing at right angles 
and lined with orange trees for shade, the rarest 
of innovations in this country. There are a 
score of public parks with music stands,, four- 
teen portales or arcades covering the sidewalks 
for many squares, and fourteen bridges span- 
ning the San Juan River. 

The Degollado Theatre is the largest on the 
continent, with the possible exception of the 
Metropolitan in New York. The only academy 
of fine arts in the country outside the capital is 
here. It is a great manufacturing city, but not 



270 Land Without Chimneys. 

a column of smoke or the noise of a wheel breaks 
the Sunday quiet. It is entirely what the word 
means — manufactures, hand-made. Pass across 
the little river among the humble adobe dwell- 
ings and every house is a work-shop for cotton 
and silk and wool and leather and musical in- 
struments. Seated upon the dirt floor with a 
distaff in her hand, I saw Penelope weaving re- 
bosas after the manner of the ancient Greeks. 
Two doors further I saw young giris with foot- 
power looms weaving cotton goods, and hard by 
were a score of young women weaving hosiery 
with small hand-worked machines. Leather 
and straw hats and baskets were all done by 
hand, and what a busy city ! For squares and 
squares, every doorway revealed a hive of busy 
workers, for Guadalajara must supply the 
country a hundred miles around, and forever, 
and forever, the pack-trains from the Pacific 
country and the mountains come and go with 
the exchange of commerce. It is the busiest 
city I have yet found here and the people are 
happy. Saddles and hats and hammocks and 
baskets and pottery and shoes aie made by the 
thousand tons and all by hand or the crudest of 
foot-power machinery. It is wonderful to see 
the skill of mere boys, who seem to inherit the 
trades of their ancestors, like the watch-makers 
of Switzerland or the wood- carvers of Germany. 
Of necessity, hand-made articles come high 
in price, and that forces other thousands into 
the trade to make rather than to buy. A ma- 
nilla hat will sell for four dollars right in the 
shop where it is made, and woolen sombreros 
without ornament are from four to ten dollars, 
and a pair of French suspenders costs a dollar 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 271 

and a half. A curious custom is the grouping 
together of all similar industries. In seeking a 
pair of shoes I was sent to a quarter of the town 
where for an hour every open door gave forth 
its leather odor, and the wall outside was lined 
with leather articles. There is no mooted ques- 
tion about shop-made shoes. Every workman 
sits in front of his door with his kit of tools on 
the sidewalk and works and waits for custom, 
and if he does shoddy work it is done under 
your gaze. All the rope and hemp dealers and 
workers in sisal are grouped in like manner, and 
the far-famed Guadalajara pottery can be found 
all in one square. Guadalajara is the home of 
the chocolate industry. The botanical name of 
the chocolate tree is Theobroma cacao, and on 
account of the theobromine the seeds contain, it 
is one of the most nourishing foods in the 
country. The cacao tree grows about 20 feet 
high. The leaves are large and the flowers 
small, and the fruit is a long purple pod similar 
to the yellow locust pods of our forests. The 
pod contains from twenty to forty beans, each 
very similar in size and color to 'the shelled al- 
mond. Butter made from these beans has an 
agreeable taste and odor, and rarely becomes 
rancid. ^ The principal constituents are stearin 
and olein, and is much used in surgery, and in 
France is used in pomade. The chocolate of com- 
merce^ is prepared by roasting the seeds, which 
establishes the aroma and changes the starch 
into dextrin. The seeds are then crushed, win- 
nowed and molded, and are ready for export. 
For instructions in the art of preparing the 
steaming beverage, consult your cook. I do not 
know. 



272 Land Without Chimneys. 

The most noted point in the city is the Hos- 
picio de Guadalajara. This building covers 
eight acres of ground, and within its walls are 
twenty-three patios or open courts where foun- 
tains play and flowers bloom in the open air, 
and mangoes, oranges and bananas grow in the 
very doors. This is a public institution for 
foundlings and orphans and the deaf, dumb and 
blind. Girls and boys occupy opposite sides of 
the building, and are grouped according to age. 
A matron in white cap led me through the en- 
tire establishment, beginning with the nursery 
with its long rows of cribs with infants of all 
ages and in all stages of humor. Some are 
orphans by necessity and some by desertion, but 
they have a better home than thousands with 
healthy parents. Life here is not a sinecure 
and the children are all taught valuable trades. 
Crippled and deformed little girls were embroid- 
ering and embossing laces and silks upon pat- 
terns eo intricate it looked impossible to follow 
without machinery. I shall never again believe 
that the Irish and Venetian lace-workers have 
a monopoly of this wonderful and painfully in- 
tricate knowledge. There is a bazaar in the 
front where these finished articles are offered 
for sale, and that is the main channel through 
which they receive gratuities. A direct gratuity 
would be respectfully declined as it is a state 
institution and well supported, but you would 
be told that to purchase these articles would be 
directly helpful to the poor unfortunates who 
were weaving their lives into those wonderful 
patterns. 

I asked the matron as to their final dispo- 
sition. She said that the afflicted ones would 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 273 

of course stay still death. The healthy girls 
would be helped to places of self-support, and 
the boys would all go to the army, if they had 
not mastered some trade. The children have a 
beautiful chapel in an open court and decorated 
in the most pleasing manner. I learned more of 
the nobler side of the Mexican people by a day 
spent here than in all my wanderings elsewhere. 
Sorrow and affliction are like to bring us in a 
more sympathetic union, and the hundreds of 
patient and afflicted children trying to solve 
the problems of life under difficulties, force 
home the truth that all human nature is the 
same. Except for the Spanish language, these 
neatly dressed attendants and wards could not 
be told from any similar institution in our own 
land, and they will compare as favorably in any 
line of conduct or results achieved, and the 
moral tone and timbre of the institution is a 
paragon of excellence. The Hospicio San Mi- 
guel de Belen is a similar institution for afflic- 
ted adults with hospital, lunatic asylum and 
school attached. 

I suppose penitentiary life is never pleasant, 
but prison life here is the most pleasant I have 
seen. The outer walls look grim enough, but 
within there must be two acres of flower plots 
all under care of the prisoners. The guards 
are all upon the walls and can see all that goes 
on below. The penitentiary is arranged like a 
turbine wheel, or rather like a wagon wheel, 
with avenues from all parts of the ground 
converging to a central arena without roof, and 
where the prisoners may be all assembled under 
inspection if need be. There is here also a 
reformatory for boys with dungeons for refrac- 



274 Land Without Chimneys. 

tory ones and books and lessons for the ignor- 
ant ones. While it is called a penitentiary, 
there are no long term men there ; they are all 
in the army, where they do all the drudgery 
work of the barracks. They wear a distinctive 
uniform and would be instantly shot if they 
attempted to escape. It is very easy to gain 
admission here, because the visitor is on the 
wall forty feet above ground and every part of 
the wall is traversed by narrow bridges across 
the amphitheatre over which the guards con- 
stantly travel. The prisoners are allowed to 
come to the office and sell anything they manu- 
facture, and their friends may bring them the 
raw materia], so a man may be a prisoner and 
yet support his family. The building contains 
a court of justice and prisoners from the patroi 
wagon are brought directly here and tried and 
turned into their wards. 

Monopolies have no chance here; the govern- 
ment controls everything. The slaughter house 
is a model of cleanliness and water is freely 
used. A hundred or more animals are slaugh- 
tered daily and the butchers buy as the animals 
are quartered. Prices go according to the grade 
of meat and as it is a state affair there is no 
swindling and no bidding on prices. The ani- 
mals are slaughtered without cruelty. One is 
drawn up a gangway by a windlass and fastened 
so it cannot struggle, and a knife is driven be- 
hind the horns, severing the medulla oblongata, 
and another into the heart, and the blood drawn 
off by a conduit while the carcass falls into a 
car and is drawia to the skinning room and in 
six minutes is quartered and sold. The city 
market is a wonder all by itself. It covers an 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 275 

entire square and the roof is supported by 196 
arched portales on the outside, and the number 
within the mazy interior are too many to count. 
Underneath is sold everything that is common 
to the country. 

Across the San Juan River, five kilometers 
away, is the suburban town of San Pedro. The 
tramcar passes through the city gate under a 
huge arch and enters a beautiful avenue of giant 
elms and camphor trees, and finally stops at a 
shaded plazuela in the midst of the little town. 
The town for the most part consists of mud- 
colored adobe huts with no comfort or conven- 
ience, but you soon discover that this is a resi- 
dence town of the merchants of Guadalajara. 
You discover this by the lofty stone walls shut- 
ting out the eyes of the vulgar. One of the first 
indications of wealth is a desire to be seclusive, 
and to wall the great world out from one's own 
little selfish world. Even the church is walled 
in and the cemented coping stuck with jagged 
glass, and the entrance guarded by heavy iron 
gates. 

But San Pedro is known by one thing alone 
worth notice — -pottery. Guadalajara pottery is 
known all over the world. Here is found a 
peculiar clay that gives it a priori advantage, 
and for generations the making of pottery has 
been the business of the town, and the knack of 
the thing is inherited. The delicate and artistic 
painting is done by people who never had a 
lesson in art or pigments. Everything in the 
shape of a vessel is made in San Pedro, from the 
huge urns that hold your largest lawn plants to 
the minute toy that may be covered with a 
button. Not only vessels, but every thing the 



276 Land Without Chimneys. 

Mexican has ever seen he can reproduce in clay, 
be it horse or man or procession or bull-fight or 
building, and he will make it as true to life and 
color and purpose as a photograph. But in 
San Pedro they do more than that. You can 
sit for a statue or a bust, six feet or six inches, 
and the workman will take his clay and produce 
a likeness your own mother would know. They 
are absolutely true to life in every respect, and 
will be colored as to eyes and clothes to the 
fractional part of a division of a tint, and I 
refuse to abate one jot or tittle of the statement. 

But everybody in San Pedro can do that, so 
we have not yet reached the celebrity. To find 
the artist of Mexico, of Guadalajara, of San 
Pedro, you must walk two squares east on the 
street that leads from the southeast corner of 
the plaza, turn down to the right half a square 
till you come to a little tumble-down adobe 
house on the left. The latchstring is on the 
outside and you are always welcome. Within 
is Juan Pandero, the Indian sculptor, a genius 
if there is one. To be exact there are two, 
father and son. If you want a statuette of your 
beautiful self it is made while you wait, or will 
be built and sent to your hotel, or he will 
go to your room and do it. But more than that, 
send him your photograph and he will do the 
same, and herein lies his genius. Only these 
two can produce statues from photographs, and 
they will be as true to life as though he made 
them from models. And the tools. Such tools! 
Seated on the iloor with a lump of clay and an 
old case knife, and the outfit is complete. 

From the lull of San Pedro, the City of Guad- 
alajara and the Vale of the Lerma lie before 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 277 

you, and you notice what you have noticed a 
hundred times before, how like the hills of 
Palestine are the landscape. Take any series 
of pictures of the Holy Land and of Mexico, 
and no person who had not traveled in one or 
the other could tell the difference. The houses 
low, flat-roofed and painted white, the absence 
of trees and the naked plain force the resemblance 
every time a vista is opened. 

Back to the city among those magnificent elms 
and to the Paseo. The Paseo ! what would any 
Mexican city be without its Paseo, where fash- 
ionable people take their outing with such 
system and abandon ? This Paseo extends for 
a mile along both sides of the Eio San Juan de 
Dios. There are also the Botanical gardens, and 
the Alameda, and the mint and state buildings 
with the finest of architecture, so unlooked for 
in this far-away place. Churches ! ah yes, same 
old thing, even to the earthquake brand, and 
they are costly and beautiful. The cathedral 
was begun in 1561 and completed in 1618. Both 
towers were thrown down by an earthquake in 
1818. Paintings without number adorn the 
wall. The Assumption, by Murillo, is a genuine 
master-piece. All the saints in this part of the 
vineyard have been remembered in the christen- 
ing. There are El Sagraria, San Francisco, San 
Augustin, San Felipe, La Campania, Guadalupe, 
Mexicalt-zingo, Jesus Maria, Capuchinas, Santa 
Monica, El Carmen, San Jose de Analco, San 
Sebastian de Analco, La Parroqua de Jesus, San 
Juan de Dios, Aranzazu, La Soledad, San Diego, 
Belen, La Concepcion, La Trinidad y la Parro- 
qua del Pilar, and I am tired of naming them ; 
but if you will get an almanac and call off all 



278 Land Without Chimneys. 

the saints in the calendar, I will agree to find 
their churches christened and waiting for them 
in Guadalajara. 

Nothing but a conscientious duty makes me 
go around among these old paintings, and what do 
I know about them ? I stood in an art gallery 
once before a picture called ' ' The Transfigura- 
tion ;" my companion asked me how much was 
it worth. I sized up the gilt frame and meas- 
ured the space it covered and said it must have 
cost ten dollars. He pointed to the name in one 
corner and said in disgust: "Don't you see 
Raphael's name on there? that picture is worth 
forty thousand dollars ! " I dropped my cata- 
logue to hold my palpitating heart in place and 
told him I knew better. Why, there were not 
ten yards of canvas in the whole thing, and 
the molding was not much over eight inches 
wide and there was not fifty feet of it, and I 
knew the price of molding and canvas too. 
Forty thousand dollars ! who ever heard the like ? 
"But it is not the frame, goosie, look at the 
picture! " I looked at it, and then I told him 
to look at the picture on the other side, at that 
Stag Fight, or at that fellow on the beech-log 
fishing, and "there's a picture to look at." 

He cast a withering glance at me and said 

some words which sounded like this: " ! 

!! ! ! ! natural born fool." I stayed an 

hour trying to get educated enough to see the 
forty thousand dollars. Hundreds of people 
came, looked in the catalogue at the price and 
then showed their superior education. "Now, 
that's what I call art." "Just look at the ex- 
pression." "What an ensemble!" "Note 
the radiance of that halo!" I merely asked 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 279 

them what was it anyway. Some said it was 
the price, some said it was an original old mas- 
ter, and some said it was both. I saw hundreds 
of pictures I liked better, but I was out of style. 
I saw a beech forest with silver bark and purple 
and brown leaves that I thought was a gem, and 
some one turned up his nose in disgust and 
pointed to the price; only $25 ! bah! And then 
I wept because my art education had been so 
sadly neglected, and so I never miss an oppor- 
tunity now to improve it. Now, when the guide 
strikes an attitude and proudly points to a 
painting and says : ' ' Murillo ! " I throw up 
both hands and step back a pace or two and say: 
' * Murillo ! Murillo ! Ah , 3£urillo ! Just look 
at that expression! What an ensemble!" Then 
I look at the guide's face to see how I am get- 
ting along, and he looks happy, and then we 
pass on. Then he stops. "The Entombment, 
by Titian, $50,000." Then I go into ecstacies 
and strike another attitude : ' ' The Entomb- 
ment ! $50, 000 ! Titian ! $50, 000 ! Ah, Titian ! 
$50,000 ! That's art !" When we stopped again 
I was just about to raise my hands again, and 
looked to him for my cue, but he said: "By a 
Mexican, $25." "Oh!" I said in contempt. 
"Just a daub ! Why in the name of Saint Peter 
doesn't that man learn to paint!" That guide 
said I ought to make art my calling, and I do 
not know till this day what he meant. 

Of course excursions outside of the city are 
in order. The cars lead to Tlacotalpam, about 
five kilometers away, a quaint old town that 
looks like Rip Van Winkle's summer residence. 
The Falls of Juanacatlan are farther. You 
go by rail twelve miles to Castillo, and go by 



280 Land Without Chimneys. 

horse-car one league farther to the River Lerma. 
The river is over a hundred yards wide and the 
cascade is seventy-one feet high. In high water 
the falls are beautiful, but a huge flour-mill has 
been erected which draws most of the water 
through a flume when the river is low, at which 
time it is possible to walk across the rocks the 
entire distance above the falls. The mill was 
not completed when I was there, but judging by 
the name it bears, it will be a very correct and 
moral mill. The part of the name as com- 
pleted reads: " The Mill of the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus and Mary Magdalene;" and when the 
annex is added to the mill, I was assured that 
the rest of the name would be added, as at 
present there was not enough room. Between 
Castillo and the falls is a rich valley covered 
with fine beef cattle for the city market, 
and here can be witnessed some of the finest 
work of roping cattle to be found among cow- 
boys. While in full gallop they can rope any 
foot of the animal that may be desired. 

Above here the river Lerma passes through 
Lake Chapala, and as it emerges from the other 
side it bears the name of Rio Grande de Santi- 
ago. Surely baptism is a wonderful alembic 
that can make a saint of a muddy little river by 
one emersion only. But its good works follow 
it, and where it empties into the Pacific, behold 
the Bay of San Bias! It was from Lake Chapala 
that the Aztec migration began, 648 A. D., for 
the valley of Mexico, and on this march their 
name was changed from Aztecs to Mexicatls, in 
honor of their war-god, Mexitli. Soon after the 
river leaves the lake, and just beyond Guadala- 
jara, it forms a wonderful canon, which for 



Guadalajara in the Vale of Lerma. 281 

grandeur is not surpassed on this continent. 
The chasm is a narrow barranca two thousand 
feet down its perpendicular walls. 

You stand on the brink in the tierra templada 
and behold the tiny, silver stream a full half 
mile below you in the tierra caliente, the hot 
lands of the Pacific. You will never see else- 
where such a work of nature as the canon de 
Rio Santiago. No, not even in the Colorado 
Canon. It seems as though the great Titans in 
play had spaded this great block of the conti- 
nent from those perpendicular walls, and hurled 
it at the Cyclops in the sea. 







CHAPTER XIX. 

THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 

ENTERING Mexico from El Paso on the 
Mexican Central R. R., we traverse the 
plateau that is continuous from Santa 
Fe to the City of Mexico ; and dreary enough, 
too, is the journey, with a perpetual landscape 
of mesquite brush, cactus and chaparral. The 
first place of interest is Chihuahua, two hun- 
dred and twenty-four miles from the Rio Grande, 
with its famous silver mines of Santa Eulalia. 
The city laid a tax of twenty-five cents on every 
pound of silver taken from the mine, and with 
its share of the revenue, built the famous 
church of San Francisco at a cost of eight hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

This is the home of the Chihuahua dog, a 
beautiful nervous little creature that is smaller 
than a squirrel and can easily be carried in the 
pocket. It somewhat resemble a marmoset, 
and is bought by people who are inclined 
toward pets. I have heard it darkty hinted 
that the Mexican hot tamale was largely made 
up of Chihuahua dogs, but after seeing the 
animal I do not believe it, as it would not pay 
dividends. Judging by the size, a person with 
an ordinary appetite could easily misplace two 
of them, and as tamales sell for a cent a piece 

282 



The Cities of the Plain. 283 

or twelve cents for a square meal, the dearest 
principle of speculation would be sacrificed with 
a dollar dog cooked up with a plebeian mongrel. 
It is true I have never known what was in the 
scores of tamales with which I have made a 
personal acquaintance, but I will never believe 
that a Chihuahua dog was actually killed for 
that purpose. With the armadilla it is different. 
His market value is only rated by the number of 
steaks or tamales he will make up, and of him I 
can believe anything. 

All of this country for almost a thousand 
miles is devoted to mining, which forms almost 
the only industry. At Lerdo, near the Nazas 
River is the choicest cotton-growing section of 
the country. This is the Laguna region and is 
very similar to the Nile. It rarely rains, 
but with irrigation, wheat and corn grow all the 
time, and cotton has to be planted only once in 
seven years, as it grows that long from one 
planting. Eight hundred miles from the Rio 
Grande and four hundred and forty miles from 
the city is Zacatecas, a city of eighty-five thous- 
and and the capital of Zacatecas. Nothing- 
grows here but rocks and silver, and I believe 
they do not grow any more, but they have a great 
deal of the old stock still on hand. In the heart 
of the Sierra Madres, this old town is built upon 
a silver mine which was discovered in 1546 and 
since then has disgorged a billion dollars. 

The sight of the town from the north is 
startling. You have climbed to a height of 
8,000 feet and see no indication of a city until 
the train crosses the crest. At night when the 
city is a blaze of light it surpasses anything 
seen outside of Fairyland, as the train winds in 



284 Land Without Chimneys. 

a spiral down into town, dropping 136 feet to 
the mile. At the station the mules have pulled 
up the street cars and gone back to town, and 
as you get aboard the driver loosens the brake 
and lets the car roll into town by gravity. Like 
the nests of swallows clinging to the cliffs are 
the houses of Zacatecas, perched far up where 
it seems only a goat could climb. 

And Zacatecas also has its Guadalupe, upon 
whose summit is the church of Los Remedios, 
and up the road, as na\rrow as the one which 
leads to righteousness and as rocky as the one 
up from Jordan, lined with sharp stones and 
crull cactus, crawl devotees on bleeding knees 
to do penance for their souls' salvation, at the 
behests of priests who grow rich from their sav- 
ings. Of course all the saints have churches 
named for them, and here is probably the oldest 
Presbyterian Church in the world. It was once 
dedicated to San Augustin, but has now become 
the property of the Presbyterians. In the old 
church of Guadalupe is probably more to interest 
the stranger than in any other church in this 
land of churches. In the main altar are life-size 
figures of the crucifixion, and behind these is a 
painting of Calvary with the Jews and Roman 
soldiers, drawn to affiliate with the statues in 
front with startling effect. The church is filled 
with people kneeling at the altars and whisper- 
ing in the confessionals. The old art gallery 
is filled with pictures of the saints in all grada- 
tions of trials and temptations which prepared 
them for immortalit) T . The new chapel is the 
gift of a maiden lady of great wealth, and is 
the finest chapel in Mexico. The floor is inlaid 
with hard woods in different colors, and the altar 



The Cities of the Plain, 285 

is rich with silver and gold and gilding and wax 
figures, and silk and satin hangings. The altar 
rail is of onyx and solid silver. The walls are 
finely frescoed, and arched to a dome fifty feet 
above the floor. Everywhere are mines, mines, 
and from their yawning mouths the Mexican 
laborers climb ladders all day, bearing on their 
back canvas sacks holding two hundred pounds 
of ore, and receive the princely sum of thirty- 
five cents a day. The richest churches and the 
poorest people in Mexico are always found in 
the same town and are correlative. The very 
fact that the people are poor, is because they 
have made the church rich. A million dollar 
church whose portals are filled with a hundred 
ragged paupers begging alms is an every day 
occurrence. 

As the train leaves Zacatecas going south, it 
climbs a grade one hundred and seventy-five 
feet to the mile, and ere long reaches Aguas 
Calientes, "Hot Waters," and the town runs 
riot in smoking, steaming, hot waters that burst 
from the mountain side and offer free baths and 
prepared laundry facilities free gratis for 
nothing to all who wish thera, and they are 
thoroughly appreciated. Men, women and 
children paddle in the water and bathe and 
dress and undress with no worry at all about 
the small conventionalities of privacy, etc. Now 
and then you will see a baby tied to a string, 
who paddles to the length of his tether while 
his mother, is busy with her laundering. The 
town was built in 1520 and is worthy of a visit 
at any time, but to see it in its glory you must 
come to La fiesta de San Marcos. Saint Mark 
is the patron saint of the city, and from April 23 



286 Land Without Chimneys. 

to May 10, all the turkeys in reach are slaugh- 
tered to grace the festal board and the busi- 
ness houses close for a holiday. There is a fine old 
bell in the great church by the plaza, and when- 
ever it is heard the peons uncover their heads, 
cross their hands and engage in prayer. People 
from all over the country come here to bathe in 
the hot waters and take life easy. It ie better 
than heating water at home. Fruit is abundant 
and cheap, oranges selling two for a cent in 
Mexican money, or four for a cent in Uncle 
Samuel's coin. Flowers grows so luxuriously 
in this warm moist atmosphere, that geraniums 
and oleanders grow to the height of trees. 

Below Aguas Calientes is the city of Leon, on 
the river Turbois, in the state of Guanajuata. 
It contains a hundred thousand population and 
is the third city in importance in Mexico. It 
has five hundred and seven streets, two hun- 
dred and thirty-six manzanas and ten plazas. 
Nearly everything in use by the citizen is made 
here, but the leather industry prevails. There 
is no machinery whatever, but everywhere are 
handlooms for weaving rebosas, shops for the 
making of bridles and the cruel spade-like 
bridle-bits, saddles, leather clothing and som- 
breros, so much prized by cow-bo} T s and haci- 
endados. 

Guanajuata is the capital of the state and is 
pronounced "Wah-nah-water." The original 
name of the town was Guanashuata, "The Hill 
of the Frogs" in the Tarascan tongue, on ac- 
count of the fanciful shape of the overhanging 
mountain. For three hundred years mining has 
been the business of this city which contains 
sixty crushing mills to reduce the quartz. The 



The Cities of the Plain. 287 

richest silver mine in the country is here, the 
Veta Madre, which has already produced 
$800,000,000 by the crude methods in vogue 
here, which never secure over sixty percent of 
the real value. Owing to the scarcity of fuel 
and water, machinery is impractical, so the 
usual method of extraction is as follows : the 
rock is ground into a fine powder and made into 
a paste with water, and spread upon the floor of 
a large court a hundred feet square, after the 
manner of a brick-yard mortar-pit ; then certain 
prepartions of salt" sulphate of iron and quick- 
silver are added, and for three weeks a drove 
of broken-down donkeys and men tramp leg- 
deep in this huge mud-pie. When the amalga- 
mation is complete and the quicksilver has col- 
lected all the silver, it is taken in wheel-barrows 
to washing tanks, where half -naked men and 
boys puddle it till the metal falls to the bottom 
and the refuse washes away. It is barbarous 
treatment for men and animals, and a slow 
method, but the only practical one where coal 
sells for $20 a ton and wood $11 a cord. Wad- 
ing naked in quicksilver and vitriol is not cal- 
culated to lengthen life, and the life of mules 
in this business is generally four years and of 
the drivers eight, and yet they never lack for 
drivers. The mines average $33 to every ton of 
raw material handled, and the silver is so plenti- 
ful and the profits so satisfactory that the forty 
percent, loss does not trouble the owners. The 
85,000 people all get a living and are happy and 
what more is needful. 

Queretaro with its fifty thousand population 
is especially noted for opals. It is a remarkable 
fact that every industry in Mexico is distri- 



288 Land Without Chimneys. 

buted by towns. Irapuato for strawberries, 
Celaya for dulces, Lerdo for cotton goods, Leon 
for leather, Puebla for onyx, Orizaba for fruits, 
Saltillo for Zer^pes, Guadalajara for pottery, 
Jala pa for beautiful women, and so on from Dan 
to Beersheba. And so Queretaro contains the 
mines which produce the fiery opal which 
brings so much ill luck to the owners, according 
to the reigning superstition. This was an 
Aztec town, captured by the Spaniards in 1531. 
It was here the treaty of peace with the United 
States was finally ratified in 1818, and where 
Mr. Seward was met with so much honor in 
1869. The Hercules Cotton Mill is the greatest 
attraction of Queretaro and one of the greatest 
in the country. It has an over- shot water- 
wheel forty-six and a half feet in diameter, and 
also a Corliss steam engine which burns wood 
costing sixteen dollars a cord. One thousand 
eight hundred employees work here twelve hours 
a day with wages from thirty-seven and a half 
to fifty cents a day, and weavers get six or 
seven dollars a week. The premises are walled 
in by a fort, and in front is stationed a company 
of thirty-seven men with Winchester rifles. 
All large establishments have to do this, as the 
large amount of money changing hands on pay- 
day is but an invitation to desperate men of the 
Jesse James persuasion to make an informal 
call. This mill has twenty-one thousand 
spindles and seven hundred looms, and manu- 
factures the unbleached cotton which the com- 
mon people wear. In the midst of a profusion 
of flowers stands a statue of Hercules which 
cost fourteen thousand dollars before it left 
Italy. Protective tariff in favor of this mill 



The Cities of the Plain. 289 

against imports is nine and three quarter cents 
per square metre, which enables it to sell its 
cloth at thirteen cents per square yard wholesale. 
A better grade of goods is sold in the United 
States for five cents. Free Trade is yet a long 
ways off in Mexico. 

Maximilian and his two generals were shot 
here, and the saddest thing connected with the 
history is the fate of poor Carlotta, his wife. 
She was very dear to the people of Mexico, and 
when Maximilian was taken prisoner many 
people pleaded for his life. The governments 
of Europe protested against his execution, and 
the United States asked a stay of his sentence. 
The princess Salm-Salm rode a hundred and 
sixty miles on horseback and on bended knee 
prayed Juarez to spare his life. The next day 
after his capture, Carlotta hurried to Vera Cruz 
and set sail for France and begged Napoleon III 
to keep his word and uphold the treaty of 
Miramar, and Napoleon insulted her for her 
trouble. She then went to Rome and prayed to 
Pope Pius IX. but fared no better and distracted 
by her failures she became a raving maniac, and 
for these thirty years no light of reason has 
ever returned, but in the Austrian capital she 
sits in gross darknes?, babbling the name of 
Maximilian. As for the Indian president, Juarez, 
he listened to all petitions but gave but one 
answer; that war was war, and as for sickly 
sentimentalism, he had gone out of the posing 
business, and they who lived by the sword should 
die by the sword. 

While Maximilian was in power, he issued a 
decree that every officer taken in arms against 
the government should be shot without trial, 



290 Land Without Chimneys. 

and he executed that decree with every Mexican 
officer he captured. Now Juarez was in power 
and the law had never been repealed, and he 
decided it would work as well with Juarez as 
with Maximilian. Aside from all this he de- 
cided that one dead Austrian Emperor on Mexi- 
can soil was worth a hundred live ones, and 
Juarez always lived up to his convictions. 

P. S. Maximilian was shot. 

Pachuca is the capital of Hidalgo, eight thous- 
and feet above the sea, and overcoats are needed 
the whole year. There are three hundred mines 
here and the business has been carried on f<>ur 
hundred years, and the quantity of silver taken 
out will never be known. The Trinidad alone in 
ten years yielded fifty million dollars. The 
other principal mines are the Rosario, Caridado, 
Xacal, Santa Gertrudis, Caxyetana and Dolores. 
At Acambaro we change cars for the Lake Reg- 
ion, through the beautiful towns of Morelia, the 
capital of Michoacan and the residence of the 
Bishop. In olden times when the Tarascan 
Kings got tired acting King, they took their 
boats, and leaving Tzintzantzan, their capital, 
paddled over to Patzcuaro, "Place of Pleasure." 

The town is very old and the streets are very 
crooked, with shrines and saints set in the walls 
at every corner, but the old settlers were right 
when they called it a place of pleasure. After 
a good night's rest it is the proper thing to see 
the sunrise, that will leave its impression with 
you forever. Up the street to the Hill of Cal- 
vary you pass fourteen stations of the Cross 
where the faithful pray. You hurry on to Los 
Balcones, a stone parapet in front of the church 
of Calvary and what a sight meets your eye! 



The Cities of the Plain. 291 

From your elevation of a mile and a half above 
the sea, the world is spread before you like a 
panorama. Spread at your feet is Laguna 
Paizcuaro, "Lake Beautiful," with its green 
islands and giant trees, and as the sun comes up 
out of the Sierras he discloses to your enchanted 
gaze a level plain with forty-three towns 
with a setting of mountains and valleys worth a 
journey to see. Lake Patzcuaro is the highest 
navigable water on the globe, being over seven 
thousand feet high. It is a thousand feet below 
you on Los Balcones, but its thirty miles of 
length and twelve of width are before you as a 
mirror. On its bosom is the quaintest little 
steamboat that ever paddled a wheel, the Mari- 
ano Jiminez, and it will take you among all the 
beautiful islands, and to the old town of Tzin- 
tzuntzan. This was once the capital of the 
ancient Kingdom of Tarasco that resisted to the 
last the sovereignty of Montezuma, and after 
the Conquest was the seat of the Bishopric of 
Tarasco. This Bishopric was held in such high 
esteem by Philip II of Spain that he presented 
the cathedral with the finest creation from the 
brush of Titian, "The Entombment," The old 
church is crumbling down, but the Indians ven- 
erate the painting so much the Bishop has for- 
bidden its removal. Art lovers have offered 
immense sums for it, but the church authorities 
refuse to entertain offers in any sum, and so it 
hangs where it was hung over three hundred 
years ago. 

The lake is dotted with innumerable fisher 
boats and timber rafts and large flat-bottom 
boats hewn from giant trees. The fishermen 
simply dip their nets in the water, at random and 



292 Land Without Chimneys. 

catch the fish, which here form one of the chief 
articles of food; but we started out to study art, 
and not fish, so we land on the opposite side to 
see the famous painting which is so zealously 
guarded. You are admitted through the outer 
wall into the patio wh^re sit a number of Indian 
women braiding mats, and the padre said they 
were doing penance. With a lighted candle the 
padre leads you through a dark corridor to a 
grim door, barred, chained and padlocked. 
This door leads into a chamber dark as night. 
The padre opens a grated w T indow and lets in a 
flood of light and the picture lies revealed with 
its life-size figures. You know you are in the 
presence of the great master, because everybody 
says so. 

Artists from every part of the world have 
come to see this painting and they all say it is a 
genuine Titian, and I knew this was the proper 
place and time to expiate on art as I had heard 
those learned critics do before the Transfigura- 
tion. I had finished nearly all the phrases they 
said when the padre closed the window and 
the flood-gate of my eloquence. Ah, but it was 
grand! After the padre had blown out the 
light, barred, chained and pad-locked the door, 
a new idea came to me. The bishop of Mexico 
has offered these Indians fifty thousand dollars 
for the picture and they laughed at him, and 
ten times that figure cannot buy it. All the 
figures are life- size and it is large enough, but 
fifty thousand dollars will plaster both sides. 
My idea is to go down there toTzintzuntzan and 
get a job of doing penance in that old church 
and finally get ni} T self elected guardian of the 
key 8 to that room, and then I will write this 



The Cities of the Plain. 293 

letter to the bishop of Mexico: " Dear Bishop: 
I hear that you have money to burn ; also that 
you have fifty thousand dollars to invest in old 
canvas, especially the brand that adorns the 
dark alcove in the old cathedral at Tzintzuntzan. 
If you mean b-i-z, meet me at the Rialto on 
Lake Beautiful this P. M., just as the moon is 
rising in China, and we will give that old can- 
vas the first fresh air bath it has had in three 
hundred years. 

"P. S. — Gome prepared to move in light march- 
ing order, because the state of Michoacan will 
hardly be large enough for you and the picture 
after morning mass. 

"N. B., P. S. No. 2.— Don't forget the fifty 
thousand dollars, for 

< 'Yours Truly." 

If ever I get to be doorkeeper down there I 
shall certainly vote to use that fresh air fund to 
the best advantage, and there will still be profit 
enough to give all those enthusiastic art lovers 
a square meal after I have started to Canada, 
and I certainly would do that much for them. 
In coming years when the Tzintzuntzan poets 
shall say, "What are the wild waves saying?" 
they will answer, that they saw the only hust- 
ling doorkeeper that old church ever had , cross 
that lake between two days once, and before 
Aurora, child of the morn, had awakened from 
her sleep, he had reached the other side of the 
mountains and lit running. 



CHAPTER XX. 

DIVES AND LAZARUS. 

THERE is probably no other country where 
the gulf between the rich and poor is so 
wide. Six thousand people own all the 
land in Mexico, and eleven million people have 
to live upon terms made directly or indirectly 
by those six thousand. The same six thousand 
are also the governing class, and make all laws 
to favor their own interest. For instance, all 
the land of the rich is exempt from taxation, 
and this compels the poor laborer to pay the 
tax for the support of the government. It is 
hard for a man to acquire land here, as the 
holders will not sell, and the laws against 
foreigners are very strict. Mexico has never for- 
gotten 1848, when California, Arizona and New 
Mexico were seized by the United States, and 
she now sees to it that Americans get no more. 
Thus, no American, without consent of the 
president, can acquire land within twenty 
leagues of the border. This precaution is based 
upon the experience of Texas. Mexicans allowed 
the Americans to settle in Texas, and so soon as 
they felt strong enough they struck out for in- 
dependence and got it. If Americans were 
allowed to buy along the Rio Grande, it would 
be but a few years till the Rio Grande country 

294 



Dives and Lazarus. 295 

would declare independence and join Texas, 
just as Texas joined the union. 

The rich have also made a law that a man 
may become a slave for debt, and the property 
of the creditor. As a legal enactment the law 
has been repealed, but as a matter of fact, the 
law is as operative today as it ever was, and 
this class of slave labor is known as peons. 
The peon may owe the creditor a hundred dol- 
lars. He is paid such low wages he never can- 
cels his debt, but continues till it is doubled. 
Should he become dissatisfied with his master, 
he can get some one else to buy him by paying 
the debt, and he thus becomes the slave of the 
second, but this is always done legally. The 
original owner must write out a statement of 
the amount of debt, and allow the peon three 
days for each hundred dollars to seek a new 
master. Once in debt, always in debt, so the 
poor peon is never free, and his wife is included 
in his contract, and the haciendas will have no 
other kind of labor. The Mexican by nature is 
averse to work, and where land is so fertile and 
fruit is so plenty, it is hard to get a free Mexi- 
can to work, and harder to hold him. The peon, 
on the other hand, has both a moral and legal 
compulsion to work, and the fear of the law 
compels him to work every day but Sundays 
and feast days. So this is the kind of labor the 
haciendados seek. 

In opening a new plantation, instead of hir- 
ing men, the owner spends six or eight thousand 
dollars in buying peons from other farms, before 
his new place has earned him a dollar. When 
he becomes the property of his new master, a 
contract must be made as to time and wages. 



296 Land Without Chimneys. 

The peon agrees to work on all days except feast 
clays, and to receive in wages two dollars and a 
half a month, plus a ration of corn, beans and 
salt, or four dollars a month without rations. 
The rations consist of six almuds (6-| quarts 
each) of corn, half an almud of frijoies (beans) 
and one pound of salt. If a peon refuses to pay 
his debts in money or work, the law places him 
in close confinement. Life on these haciendas 
is peculiar to itself. The buildings are in the 
form of a huge rectangle surrounded by high 
walls and entered by massive gates which are 
closed at night. The walls are mounted by 
towers and pierced by loop-holes for muskets, 
and generally surrounded by a moat. All these 
precautions have been necessary in a land in- 
fested by bandits and subject to the annual 
raids of the revolutionists who could get horses 
and supplies to furnish a regiment. 

The hacienda of Jaral once controlled 20,000 
peons and furnished a full regiment for the 
Spanish army in the war of independence. 
Within this enclosure on one side is the res- 
idence of the btfsses, as the owners nearly all 
live in Europe. On the other sides, in adobe 
huts with dirt floors, live the peons with their 
families and dogs, while in the center or in a 
separate enclosure are the animals. It reminds 
one of the fedual days to hear the signal bell 
rung and see the hundreds of people hurrying to 
the hacienda and closing the ponderous gates and 
preparing for a siege. Revolutions and bandits 
are not as frequent now as formerly, but the 
haciendas have no faith in Utopia, so they still 
build in accordance with past experience. The 
universal work animal is the ox, and he is 



Dives and Lazarus. 297 

worked just as he was on the Mle four thousand 
years ago. The plow is a sharp stick with an 
iron point that does not turn the soil but only- 
opens a furrow. The beam is fastened to the 
yoke, and the yoke is fastened to the animal's 
horns by means of raw-hide thongs, the universal 
hammer and nails of the country. The people 
mend, repair and make everything by means of 
raw-hide. The plowman holds the single handle 
with his left hand, and in his right he carries a 
goad with a steel point on the end with which 
he persuades his team. The driver never speaks 
to his team, but if he wants the team to go to 
the left he silently prods the right hand ox, and 
vice versa. The cruel method of fastening the 
yoke to the horns compels the oxen to pull by 
their necks instead of by their shoulders, and 
with a heavy two-wheeled cart loaded with a 
ton of stone, their necks soon become so stiff 
they cannot bend them, and cannot graze nor 
drink water unless they stand in it leg deep. 
Innovations? O no, the Mexican wants no 
innovation. An enterprising Yankee shipped 
some plows down, and the natives sawed off one 
handle of every one. He had always plowed 
with one handle and always will. In making 
excavations for building, no wheel-barrow is 
seen. A piece of raw-hide stretched between 
two poles and carried by two men is the only 
wheel-barrow they will ever use. The only 
ladder in the country is an upright pole with 
cross-pieces tied on by ropes. To saw lumber 
a pit is dug and the log laid across the top, then 
with one man in the pit and one on the log, it is 
sawed into lumber. For wagons they use only 
two-wheel carts, and in loading, sometimes three 



298 Land Without Chimneys. 

or four hundred pounds will overbalance on the 
forward side and crush the mule to the ground, 
but with whip and lash he is made to get up and 
move. 

I have seen these two-wheel carts come from 
the mines loaded with over two tons of silver, 
and drawn by eight mules, and only one mule in 
the shafts, and his back would be bent into the 
segment of a circle and his legs spread like a 
cotton toy. 

To thresh their grain, it is spread in the yard 
and the oxen and donkeys are driven over it 
two or three days to tramp it out, just as they 
did in Egypt in Pharaoh's time. After ten 
yoke of oxen had tramped over the wheat for 
two days, I fear there are fastidious people who 
would refuse to eat it, but we can get accus- 
tomed to many things when we have to. Even 
the green scum on the stagnant water of the 
canal makes a fine dish when you cannot do any 
better. 

There came a Yankee to this country once who 
saw a Mexican threshing machine, which con- 
sisted of about thirty sheep, goats and burros, 
that were wading knee-deep in grain and 
threshing it out; so when he got home, he sent 
that farmer a Yankee threshing machine almost 
as a present, and it was put to work. The 
grain was threshed clean and it performed the 
work of a dozen men and twice that number of 
animals, and seemed a great success, but it got 
bruited to the priests. They came and saw the 
machine and stood in amazement. From their 
standpoint it was too great an innovation, and 
what might it not lead to ? They declared that 
the devil was in the machine, and positively 



Dives and Lazarus. 299 

forbade the peons to use it ! The threats and 
warnings frightened the poor ignorant peons out 
of their wits, and that machine was sent back 
across the Rio Grande. 

When railroads were first introduced, the 
priests had the tracks torn up, and for a long 
time the rubber hose of the air-brake was con- 
tinually cut open, because it was said to be the 
work of the devil. Wise priests they are in 
Mexico. Well do they know that where intelli- 
gence and invention find their way among those 
Indians, the power of the priesthood is gone, so 
it is not a matter of ignorance with them. They 
are well-educated — too well to permit innova- 
tions that will lessen their influence and shekels. 
I have met these priest outside of their official 
capacity, and found that many of them were 
educated in Europe and America and were well 
posted in the affairs of today, all of which 
proves that their teaching what they know to 
be false is the most transparent humbug. 

The tools and manner of working is shiftless 
to the last degree. I have seen plantations 
planted in corn, and it was done by men digging 
holes with short handled grubbing-hoes, in which 
to plant, and when it was large enough to culti- 
vate, take a short paddle or a board, and on 
their knees rake the dirt to each stalk. 

The corn has been inbred until it is of the 
most stunted growth, when a few bushels of 
Texas corn would give new life to it. It is a 
rare thing to see a stalk on the plateau over five 
feet high, while the conditions of the soil ought 
to produce a height of twelve feet. For irriga- 
tion they still use the old well-sweep, a long pole 
balanced in a fork, and as the weighted end 



300 Land Without Chimneys. 

goes down, the laden bucket rises at the other, 
and all day the laborer draws this water to slake 
his thirsty field. A suction pump would do the 
work of six men, but I have not seen such an 
innovation as a pump in all this land. In mak- 
ing a cart the native will take his ax and hew 
him out one complete, and there will be no par- 
ticle of iron about it. 

With the woman, life is a continual tread-mill 
until she dies. From girlhood to old age her 
business is grinding corn, and it takes her entire 
time. In the entire country I have seen no 
other corn mill. The usual method is to put the 
corn to soak in lime water to soften the grains, 
and then they are laid upon a stone a dozen at a 
time and crushed by another stone roller made 
exactly like our kitchen rolling pins; and when 
it comes to grinding corn for a large family, a 
dozen grains at a time, it means- a day's work. 
In large cities of over a hundred thousand popu- 
lation, the public mill is the same. I visited a 
number where meal was ground for sale, and on 
the floor were thirty or forty women down on 
their knees grinding corn ; the metata, or nether 
stone is held against the stomach like a wash- 
board, and the rolling-pin stone is worked up 
and down to crush the corn, but always she is 
on her knees. This constant labor gives the 
peon woman a stolid look of resignation that 
never departs from her features. For use, the 
grated meal is dampened and made into thin 
cakes the size and thickness of a saucer, and 
cooked by placing on a hot stone or piece of 
sheet-iron. 

Neither knives, forks, dishes or spoons enter 
into their household equipment. The tortilla 



Dives and Lazarus. 301 

is about the color and toughness of leather, and 
is baked and stacked away for future use. 
The f rijolas are cooked in a small burnt clay ves- 
sel, then poured into or upon a f rijola, which is 
then rolled into a cylinder and eaten. If by 
good fortune they have anything else to eat, the 
tortilla Is used as a plate for this dainty and 
then the plate is eaten. Their adobe houses 
have dirt floors and no windows or chimneys. 
They never use fire except for cooking and that 
is done on the outside. Within are neither bed, 
table nor chairs. Sometimes there is a straw 
mat for a bed, and they sleep in the clothes they 
have worn all day, the men rolling in their 
zerapes and the women in rebosas. Shame and 
modesty in the usual amenities of life are en- 
tirely absent, and no privacy whatever is 
sought or needed. The men dress in white cot- 
ton and wear sandals on their feet, and each 
man is his own shoemaker. The women wear, 
often, simply a coarse chemise or at most a 
short petticoat reaching to the bare knees. 
Sometimes they wear coarse shoes, but never 
stockings. Their faces have a perpetual look of 
sadness. They arc slaves for debt, and have 
nothing else in life to hope for. Marriage laws 
are almost unknown. They have not the money 
to secure a legal marriage, so the formality is 
dispensed with. In some of the largest cities 
in the country you may take a seat in a public 
park, and when no policeman is near some 
cadaverous looking woman will approach lead- 
ing a daughter, and will offer to sell her for two 
or three dollars — to such stress ore thejr driven 
by their condition. 

Do not think for a moment that all this suffer- 



302 Land Without Chimneys. 

ing and depravity will awaken sympathy from 
the rich. The rich are Spaniards, and being 
such, have neither sympathy nor charity for 
Mexicans and Indians. In trading with these 
poor people I have purposely paid them more 
than the price asked, when some Spaniard, 
thinking I had been cheated, would rush up 
and abuse the seller and attempt to restore my 
money. 

Caste distinctions are drawn as. tight as steel 
wires, and a peon would no more resent an in- 
sult from a Spaniard than if he were a superior 
being. They are fatalists, and accept their lot 
as their portion. Before the law they are all 
equal, but if the aristocracy should appropriate 
a particular park or street or sidewalk, the 
rabble would cower and huddle near the edge 
but would no more trespass than if it were an 
enchanted spot. The laws are made by the 
aristocrac}^, and in a lawsuit for damages the 
poor would have no show at all, and in most 
cases the leges non scriptw are more powerful 
than the written. By common consent (of the 
aristocracy) the people have divided themselves 
into classes and they never transgress their 
acknowledged boundaries. No peon would 
think of asking a well-dressed gentleman for a 
cigarette light, and said gentleman would not 
use said peon for a door-mat. 

The most remarkable feature is the zeal with 
which the police enforce caste rules. The rail- 
roads and street-cars are all divided into classes 
and the police are always present to see that the 
pilagua or poor class always go third-class. 
Even should one have a first-class ticket, the 
policeman would promptly eject him. At the 



Dives and Lazarus. 303 

bull-ring or theater the police assort them by 
their clothes, and I have yet to hear of a pro- 
test by the ejected. In the alamedas and prom- 
enades, if the aristocracy appropriate the inner 
circle next the band stand, the people imme- 
diately fall back to the outer circle, and a string 
of police will see that they stay there. But to 
all Americans, however dressed, barriers fall 
away like cobwebs, and with a tip of the hat 
the official bids you "Passe senor." Ordinary 
servants are chosen from the great middle class, 
and employers require such exact obedience 
and homage that no servant of the 
United States would remain a day. No 
matter how often a servant is called, she 
must always answer with some deprecating 
remark denoting her position, such as: "Yes, 
your humble servant," or "At your service, 
Senora," and this formula must never be 
omitted. In nine cases out of ten no beds are 
furnished servants, and I have seen men and 
women spread themselves over the bare floor night 
after night and sleep in the same clothing they 
wore all day. For this faithful service women 
get five dollars a month, in a country where the 
cheapest cotton cloth is thirteen cents a yard. 
But Mexican servants are the best in the world. 
They know nothing of the comforts of life as 
we know them, so they do not grumble at their 
lot. Obedience and hardship are their inheri- 
tance, and like the caged bird that has never 
known freedom, they never chafe. It is this 
submission that makes the priesthood anxious 
to keep American innovation out ; but let intelli- 
gence be once awakened to superior conditions, 



304 Land Without Chimneys. 

and automatic obedience to church and master 
will suffer a compound fracture. 

The life of the great middle class woman is 
the happiest of the lot. Not being ground by- 
poverty nor bound by the laws of aristocratic 
society, she enjoys life. The blue blood deserves 
our greatest sympathy. She must never appear 
without duenna or escort. If she engage in 
any occupation whereby she earns money or 
is drawn from her seclusiveness, she immedi- 
ately loses caste. An educated lady may do 
missionary work or perform in music for some 
funcion ; very well, but if it be known that she 
received pay for so doing, it would mean her 
Waterloo. In consequence most such places in 
the country are filled by foreigners who have 
no such restrictions to face. Sometimes gen- 
tility frazzels out to a very name with no income, 
and then the poor lady is in the strait whether 
she shall go hungry or lose caste, so she works 
by stealth. To the public she gives music 
lessons or art lessons for the love of it but on 
the quiet she collects tuition, and thus is able 
to live and still hold her own with the four 
hundred. 

A Mexican lady has her world in two hemi- 
spheres, the church and the home. When she 
i6 not in one she is in the other. They neither 
visit nor receive oalls. A Mexican's home is for 
himself and he does not invite his dearest 
friends to it. This is not indicative of selfish- 
ness but the custom. If you want to see anyone 
you never go to their home, but to the plaza at 
eight when the band begins to plaj% and see 
your friends. That is what the band is for, to 
play while you visit. And so her life is spent. 



Dives and Lazarus, 



305 



In her home all day peeping through iron bars, 
and on Sunday going to the bull fight, and three 
evenings a week going to the plaza to chat. 
Her home is furnished with elegance, but she 
has a peculiar custom. If her best room will 
hold forty chairs, then forty will be there. In 
nearly every home I have seen the walls held 
as many chairs as would set around the four 
sides, but their use was never revealed to me. 
Great is custom. 




CHAPTER XXI. 



POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



LIFE is extremely hard in Mexico. The 
absence of fuel and water places her in- 
dustries at a great disadvantage, and to 
foster her crude industries she is compelled to 
put a prohibitory tariff on imports, which falls 
heavily upon the consumer. A reciprocity 
treaty with the United States would solve the 
problem, but who ever heard of the American 
Congress agreeing upon subjects of great impor- 
tance. When I first went to Mexico each state 
collected its own custom duties independent of 
the national government, and custom officials 
met the train at every state line. I knew a lady 
who moved from Kansas to Nueva Leon, the 
second state across the border, and on a silver 
water-pitcher valued at $35, she paid an ad valo- 
rem duty of $17.15. The custom regulations 
have changed now, and duty is no longer col- 
lected by individual states, but it is bad enough 
as it is. American ham in Mexico costs fifty 
cents a pound, cheese seventy-five cents, canned 
salmon one dollar a can, and mackerel twenty- 
five cents each. 

Through the kindness of D. Appleton & Co., 
I am permitted to use some figures below, taken 
from that very excellent work by David A. 
Welles, " A Study of Mexico." 

306 



Political Economy. 307 

"In 1885, an American living in the City of 
Mexico induced the landlady to order an Ameri- 
can cooking- stove. In due time the stove ar- 
rived, and this is a copy of the bill presented and 
paid upon delivery: 

ORIGINAL INVOICE: 

1 stove weight 282 pounds 

1 box pipe " 69 •' 

1 box stove furniture " 86 " 

Total 437 pounds or 199.3 kilos. 

Cost in St Louis. U.S. currency $ 26 50 

Exchange at 20 per cent 5 30 



Total $ 31 80 

Freight from St. Louis to City of Mexico (rail) at 

?3 15 per 100 pounds $ 15 75 

Mexican consular foe at El Paso 4 85 

Stamps at El Paso 45 

Cartage and labor on boxes examined by custom- 
house at El Paso .$ 50 

Forwarding commission, El Paso ...'..." 2 00 

Exchange 16% per cent, on $7 64 freight advanced by 

Mexican Central Railroad 1 25 



$ 52 85 



$56 60 



IMPORT DUTIES: 

1 box, 128 kilos (stove) iron without brass or copper 

ornaments, at 19 cent3 per kilo .$ 24 42 

1 box, 31.3 kilos, iron pipe, at 24 cents per kiio 7 51 

1 box iron pots, with brass handles, at 24 cents per kiio 9 48 

$ 41 41 

Add 4 per cent as per tariff 1 65 



Package duty, 5o cents per 100 kilos 1 00 



$ 44 06 
Add 5 per cent as per tariff 2 20 

a^o ' • . $ 46 26 

Add 2 per cent, municipal duty 93 

Add 5 per cent, consumption duty 2 86 

? 49 55 



308 Land Without Chimneys. 

Dispatch of goods at Buena Vista station, City of 

Mexico 38 

Stamps for permit 5 50 43 

$107 C3 

Cartage in City of Mexico 75 

Total #107 78 

RESUME : 

Original cost of stove with exchange $ 31 80 

Freight, consular fees and forwarding 24 80 

Import duties 50 43 

Cartage 75 



Total *107 78 

[Note.— Thi3 stove was shipped from El Paso in a lot of goods 

for Messrs. & Co.. the largest importing house in Mexico, 

thert.by saving the expense of two-thirds the consular fees— $14- 
56— which, if paid on the invoice alone, would have added $9 71 to 
charges and raised the total to $117 49.] 

In 1878 Hon. John W. Foster, then United 
States Minister to Mexico, in a communication 
to the Manufacturers' Association of the North- 
west, (Chicago) thus analyzed the items of cost, 
in the City of Mexico, of a tierce weighing 
gross 328 pounds, containing 300 pounds (net) 
of sugar cured hams : 

New York cost, 300 pounds at 11 cents % 83 00 

New York expense, such as cartage, consular invoice, 

(8 4 gold), manifest, etc., average 5 per cent, on 

large shipments 1 65 

Freight from New York to Vera Cruz at 1 cent per 

pound, payable in New York 3 25 

$ H7 90 

Exchange on New Yor*, $37 90 at 18 per cent $ 6 82 

Import duties in Vera Cruz, 138 kilos at 24 cents per 

kilo 33 12 

Municipal duties in Vera Cruz, $1 03 for every 400 

pounds 84 

Lighterage and hundliug from steamer to warehouse 

( $ 1 to $1 50 per every 200 pounds) 163 

Maritime brokerage, 2 per cent on freight ($3 25) 07 

Opening and closing barrel 50 

Additional charges in Vera Cruz for stamps and 

cartage to railroad station 1 50 

Commission in Vera Cruz, 2 per cent, on *70 66 141 

Exchange on Vera Cruz, 1 per cent, on S3!) 06 39 

Railroad freight from Vera Cruz to City of Mexico, 

14(t kilos at $54 32 per ton 7 60 

Local duties in City of Mexico, 2 percent, on Federal 

duty, 183 12 6ti 

Local expense iu City of Mexico, cartage in depot, 

expense in custom house, etc 75 

Total $ 93 19 






Political Economy. 309 

Therefore, $1 in hams in New York was worth 
$2.82 in Mexico, or 31 cents per pound! A simi- 
lar analysis showed that an invoice of ten kegs 
of cut nails, which cost in New York $22.50, 
when imported into the City of Mexico cost 
$141.64, or $1 value in nails in New York was 
equal to $6.29 in Mexico, and salt that cost $2 
a barrel in New York, cost $20.40 in Mexico. 
These are simply specimens of tariff duty, but 
the internal revenue system is no less remark- 
able. 

Every inhabitant of the republic who sells 
goods to the value of $20 must give the buyer an 
invoice of same, and affix and cancel a stamp 
of corresponding value. Retail sales are ex- 
empt from this law so long as they are less than 
$20. Eetail sellers in the market, or others whose 
capital does not exceed $300, are exempt. 
Tickets of all descriptions, railroad, theatre, 
etc., must have a stamp, also each page of the 
report of meetings; each leaf of a merchant's 
ledger, cash or day book, and every cigar sold 
separately must be delivered to the buyer in a 
stamped wrapper. Sales of spirits pay 3 per 
cent; gross receipts of railroads (city) 4 per 
cent; public amusements, 2 per cent of entrance 
fees; playing cards 50 per cent, and mercantile 
drafts pay a dollar on the hundred. Each beef 
animal on leaving a town pays 50 cents; each 
fat pig, 25 cents; each 'sheep, 12 cents; and 
everything else you can mention. 

A miller in Mexico has to pay thirty- 
two separate taxes on his wheat, from the time 
it leaves his field till he can offer it to his cus- 
tomers as flour. The country swarms with 
officials who collect taxes from every conceiva- 



310 Land Without Chimneys. 

fole source, fandangos, christenings, marriages, 
funerals, buryings, etc., while you live, and 
then collect taxes on your grave after you are 
dead. It is very much like a case I knew in 
Texas when a man was sentenced to prison for 
life, and the judge found that he had overlooked 
one indictment, so he promptly added ten years. 
I am puzzled to know if this taxation gave rise 
to the belief in the transmigration of souls, or 
whether the belief in transmigration gave the 
cue to the officials to collect from the shades. 
Perhaps this delinquent tax is charged to the 
estate of Purgatory et al. Every man between 
the ages of 18 and 66 is taxed for the privilege 
of living, and the only way to escape this tax is 
to live in Vera Cruz and die young. Poor old 
Mexico. 

I might devote ten pages to this subject, but 
what is the use? A country with such a pro- 
hibitive tariff shuts out her only source of 
revenue on imports, and exports nothing of 
importance but money, so how can she survive 
except by robbing the people? The country is 
very poor, the State of South Carolina produc- 
ing two and a half times as much as the entire 
northern half of Mexico, and if you compare them 
by proportionate areas, twenty-five times as 
much. The interminable system of taxation is 
the most despicable system on American soil. 

I have at last discovered why so many beggars 
go naked in Mexico. They go naked and beg 
in order to escape the tax gatherer, since a man 
is taxed on clothes and material and upon all 
incomes greater than $150. History tells of a 
certain people that brought on a revolution and 
a republic, just on account of such harmless 



Political Economy. 



311 



pastime as licking stamps. The time will come 
in Mexico when the people will lick just one 
stamp too many, then they will rise in their 
might and stamp the industry. in the ground. 
(Joke not intended). 




CHAPTER XXII. 

PREHISTORIC RUINS. 

" Thou unrelenting Past! 

Strong are the barriers round thy dark 
domain — 
And fetters strong and fast, 

Hold all within thy unbreathing reign. 

" Far in thy realm withdrawn, 

Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom ; 
And glorious ages gone, 

Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. 

" Full many a mighty name 

Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unre- 
vealed ; 
With thee are silent fame, 

Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared." 

WHAT strange people first entered this 
land ? Who built these stupendous 
monuments ? Whence did they come 
and whither did they go ? And what characters 
are these engraved on walls which no man can 
read ? And what catastrophe removed from the 
continent every single inhabitant of a gifted 
race ? And why do we strive so hard to lift the 
veil which for so long has guarded these strange 
portals ? 

Every man who has looked upon these speech- 
less but eloquent landmarks of these vanished 

812 



Prehistoric JRuins. 31S 

races feels a burning desire to know more of 
them. To the curious and inquisitive, Mexico 
offers an endless field, and a few of these most 
noted ruins will be mentioned here. 

The pyramid of Cholula, covering forty-four 
acres of ground, has already been mentioned. 
On Lake Texcoco stood the ancient city of 
Texcoco, and here have been found the foun- 
dations of three great pyramids, built of adobe 
and burnt brick. Sculptured blocks with finely 
chiseled bas reliefs have also been found. Three 
miles from Texcoco is a group of ruins called 
the Hill of Tezcocingo. The hill is very regular 
in outline and rises to the height of six hundred 
feet. The most .noted part of this hill is the 
aqueduct which supplied it with water. The 
embankment which leads the aqueduct from the 
mountain is from sixty to two hundred feet high. 
The canals which brought the water are cemented 
with mortar mixed with pounded brick. Thirty 
miles from the capital are the ruins of Teoti- 
huacan, "The City of the Gods." Here are 
two immense pyramids dedicated to the Sun and 
Moon.^ The one to the Sun is seven hundred 
and sixty feet square and two hundred and 
sixteen feet high, with three terraces, the one 
to the Moon is one hundred and fifty feet high. 
Between them is a paved road one hundred and 
thirty feet wide. There are a number of smaller 
pyramids dedicated to the stars and the whole 
valley for six miles is strewn with relics. 

On the Mexican Central Railroad, sixty miles 
from the city, is the town of Tula, or Toll an as' 
it was called by the Toltecs. This was their 
ancient capital and is covered with ruins. There 
are two pyramids, probably dedicated to the 



314 Land Without Chimneys. 

Sun and Moon. One is one hundred and ninety- 
six feet square and forty-six feet high, and the 
other one hundred and thirty one feet square 
and thirty-one feet high, and both rest upon 
raised foundations. The hillside for a mile has 
evidences of buildings made from adobe, brick 
and cut stone. At Queretaro, it was found that 
all the projecting points were made strong by 
ditches, walls and embankments. Bancroft in 
his "Native Races " says that at Canoas there 
is a fortified hill with forty-five defensive works, 
including a wall forty feet high, and a rectangu- 
lar platform with an area of five thousand square 
feet. 

At Quemada in the state of Zacatecas is said 
to be a hill whose every approach is guarded by 
walls of stone, with paved roads for many miles 
surrounding it. On top of the hill was a cita- 
del, guarded by a wall twenty feet high and 
nine feet thick. To the south of Cholula are 
the ruins of Xochicalco, the "Hill of Flowers," 
said to be the finest ruins in Mexico. The hill 
is a natural one rising nearly four hundred feet 
and having a circumference of nearly three 
miles. The hill was surrounded by a wide ditch 
and terraced to the top. Five of these termers 
wind around the hill, and are paved with stone 
laid in mortar, and supported by perpendicular 
walls of stone. The top of the hill was leveled 
to an area of two hundred and eighty-five by 
three hundred and twenty-eight feet, upon which 
was a pyramid five stories high. The neighbor- 
ing farmers have been using it as a stone-quarry, 
but there yet nm;! in some fine specimens of 
chiseled bas-relief. These huge masses of por- 
phyry were cut by people unacquainted with the 



Prehistoric Buins. 315 

use of iron, and as one sculptured block is eight 
feet long and three feet broad, and was carried 
nearly four hundred feet up the mound, we can 
appreciate the labor involved. There is no stone 
in this neighborhood, and yet the whole of this 
hill, three miles in circumference, is cased in 
stone. What a warlike neighborhood this must 
have been to require such fortification ! 

At Monte Alban is another group of a similar 
kind. At the summit of the hill is a platform 
half a mile wide, literally covered with sculp- 
tured stone. Mr. Bandelier considers this the 
most precious remains of aboriginal work on 
the continent. In the state of Oaxaca are the 
celebrated ruins of Mitla, built by a different 
people from the others. Besides the two mounds, 
Mr. Bandelier found the remains of thirty-nine 
buildings, most of which were built of stone. 
Huge blocks of stone were used and covered 
with a facing in which were traced peculiar 
geometrical designs. The columns are huge 
stone pillars without chapter or base. Mitla is 
an isolated spot with the pall of the tomb around 
it, except for the Zapotec Indians who live near. 
At Guingola in the same state is a fortified hill 
and a ruined settlement. In the state of Vera 
Cruz on the Panuco river Mr. Norman found 
twenty mounds and the ruins of a great city 
now covered by a forest. Cortez found this 
place inhabited by Totonac Indians whose tra- 
ditions knew nothing of the ruins. The largest 
mound covers two acres, and was faced with 
stone 18 inches square. From the sculptures 
and inscriptions it was probably the work of the 
Mayas. 

The Smithsonian Eeport of 1873, page 373, 



316 Land Without Chimneys. 

says : "There is hardly a foot of ground in the 
state of Vera Cruz, in which, by excavation, 
either a broken obsidian knife or a piece of pot- 
tery is not found." The Mayas here probably 
made their last stand against the invading 
Nahuas, who also had to retreat before the ad- 
vancing Totonacs. The ruins around Orizaba 
and Jalapa belong to this class. At Papantla 
is a pyramid ninety feet square and seven stories 
high, built solid, with a stairway leading to the 
top. Also at Tuscapam is another pyramid and 
the remains of many other buildings. When 
the country is fully explored, there will probably 
be as many more found as are already known. 

One of the latest discoveries happened while 
I was in Mexico in 1896, and was by a Cuban, 
Mr. G. M. Moliner, who lives in the city of 
Mexico. He spent four years in Egypt, and 
for ten years has studied archaeology in Amer- 
ica. He has a sword which he found in Mex- 
ico and which he claims is coeval with the time 
of the Phoenicians. It is of copper and weighed 
eight pounds when discovered, and the scab- 
bard four. The characters on one side he de- 
scribes as Persian, and on the other as Phoenician. 
The inscription "Tai Abracadabra" was pointed 
out to a representative of the Mexican Herald, 
and the symbols of the gnostic beasts, the man, 
the eagle and the dragon, and the blade repre- 
sents the bull's tongue. He lias also discovered 
a curio of copper, representing episodes in the 
history of the mound-builders as he claims, 
Showing the city of the sun, figures of warriors, 
the conquering race armed with swords and oval 
shields, and bearing the insignia of the wolf's 
bead; while the conquered race is armed with 



Prehistoric Ruins. 317 

battle axes and fire poles, and have the insignia 
of a bird's claw. When he discovered this 
piece of copper, he also discovered what he calls 
the missing link between the past and present. 
It is a piece of jet black marble about ten inches 
square and polished as smooth as glass. 

Mr. Moliner claims that this stone contains an 
epitome of the prehistoric race and the link 
that connects them to Asia. This missing link 
is the imprint of the head of Hermes, found in 
one corner of the lustrous black marble. This 
design is about two inches square, and though 
the marble is half an inch thick, the impression 
is on both sides. He claims that the design was 
painted and imbedded by discoloring acids. He 
has had the stone photographed and the study 
of the photograph is most interesting. The 
room must be darkened and only a little light 
must reach it. He explained that the ancient 
priests did this painting in the dark, through 
green obsidian glasses, and it must be viewed 
under similar conditions/ Looking at the phot- 
ograph in full light, it presented an enlarged 
representation of the alleged head of Hermes as 
found on the marble. When the room was 
darkened and the full glare of the light shone 
on it through green glasses, the photograph had 
the appearance of burnished silver. By shifting 
the photograph, caves and rocks would appear, 
and by another shifting appeared the outlines 
of a building with towers and turrets on the 
crest of a rock, showing a building of archaic 
architecture such as is seen in ancient biblical 
illustrations. Mr. Moliner declares this to be 
the ancient Chapultepec. By another shifting 
of the light, the head of Hermes appeared with 



318 Land Without Chimneys. 

five component parts, to wit: the sacred Maya 
stone, the sacrificial knife, the imperial diadem, 
and the mask and artificial snout found in Mex- 
ico by the conquerors, the last three being in 
use by the Aztecs from time immemorial. From 
the upper part of this head of Hermes rose a 
trinity of faces, more or less distinct, one look- 
ing straight ahead, and the other two right and 
left. 

One of the oldest of religious trinities is that 
of Hermes, and Mr. Moliner claims that his dis- 
covery is similar to the symbol in the Louvre in 
Paris. The head of Hermes as found in the 
Louvre i3 on white marble, a slab eight feet high, 
and underneath it the inscription "Hermes from 
the Pelagic Times." 

The foregoing descriptions have been of ruins 
of the Nahuatl tribes ; we will now turn to those 
of the Mayas where 

" Antiquity appears to have begun 
Long after their primeval race was run." 

The city of Copan, in Honduras near the Guat- 
emala line, claims to be the oldest city in Amer- 
ica. What must be the feelings of the traveler 
as he gropes through a tropical forest and comes 
face to face with this huge structure? First 
there is a terrace eight hundred and nine feet 
one way and six hundred and twenty-four feet 
the other way, seventy-six feet high and con- 
taining twenty-six million cubic feet of stone, 
brought from a quarry two miles away. On the 
terrace were four pyramids, the largest rising 
one hundred and seventy-two feet, and sur- 
mounted by two huge trees rooted iit its mold. 
Within these ruins were found fourteen statues, 



Prehistoric Ruins. 319 

the largest thirteen feet four inches tall, and all 
covered with bas reliefs and hieroglyphics 
whose workmanship was equal to that on the 
Egyptian pyramids. In front of the statues 
stand huge altars six feet square, divided into 
thirty-six tablets *of hieroglyphics which tell to 
the world their history, but they speak in an 
unknown tongue, and we do not know whethar 
these are the emblems of a Mayan pantheon or 
the relics from the palace of pre-Adamic man. 
Everywhere is a dark mystery which has baf- 
fled the scholars of the world for these three 
hundred years. The curtain falls, the traveler 
returns, and the aeons begin again their cycles 
around mysterious Copan. 

North of Copan is the hamlet of Quiriga, with 
ruins similar to those of Copan, made of cut 
sandstone. Mr. Catherton found eight standing 
statues, one fallen, and the fragments of thirteen 
more. The hieroglyphics are similar to those 
of Copan, but the statues are two or three times 
as tall. No people have ever been found with 
any tradition whatever concerning these mys- 
terious ruins. Throughout Yucatan and Guate- 
mala are ruins and inscriptions, but the people 
and their traditions have been swallowed up by 
oblivion. Northward out of Guatemala in the 
state of Chiapas in Mexico is Palenque, the 
sphinx and Mecca of Central America. This is 
a fertile, productive country, which was deserted 
and covered with ruins when Cortez landed. 
This old deserted city covers more than a mile. 
The pyramid, according to Mr. Stephens' meas- 
urement at the base was 310 by 260 feet, and 
was cased in stone, now thrown down by 
the growth of trees. In one room of the temple 



320 Land Without Chimneys. 

was found a stone tablet four feet long and three 
feet broad, and sculptured in bas relief. It is 
set in the wall and around it is a stucco border, 
but its significance is unknown. The principal 
figure is carved with a necklace of pearls around 
the neck, and suspended from the pearls is a 
medallion containing a face. Kising from the 
center of the ruins is a tower thirty feet square 
with a staircase. Southwest of the palace is the 
pyramid called the "Temple of Inscriptions," 
whose slope was 110 feet of solid masonry. 
Each of the corner pieces contained on its sur- 
face hieroglyphics, each of which contained 96 
squares. 

In Uxmal are ruins that rival Palenque and 
are the most interesting of any in Yucatan. 
There are so many, we will mention only one, 
and give the dimensions on the authority of 
Bancroft. The pyramid is 350 feet square at 
the base and surmounts a quadrangle of build- 
ings. The building on the south is 279 feet 
long, 28 feet wide and 18 feet high. The one 
on the north is 264 feet long, 28 feet wide and 
25 feet high. The eastern one is 158 feet long, 
35 feet wide and 22 feet high and the western 
one 173 feet long, 35 feet wide and 20 feet high. 
These buildings contained 70 rooms all facing 
an open court 214 by 258 feet. The walls are 
massive, of solid rock and 9 feet thick, and the 
floors were cemented. The most attractive part 
of the whole building is the beautiful facades 
which cover 24,000 feet of surface and are pro- 
nounced the finest of native American art. The 
major trend of the facade is diamond lattice 
work, with the turtle, serpent and elephant's 
trunk alternating. The terrace which supported 



Prehistoric Buins. 321 

this building contained 60,000 cubic yards of 
material. The walls were of massive masonry, 
and the sculpture is truly artistic, and yet these 
people knew not the use of metallic tools. 

Here was enacted the greatest tragedy that 
history has ever recorded. At these altars 
unnumbered priests waved their censers in the 
worship of Quetzacoatl, the nature god of the 
Mayas, and now their cities are overgrown by a 
tropical forest and are lost to the world, which 
knows neither their name nor location, and it 
was by the merest accident that we know of 
their very existence. Nepenthe rules here 
supreme. A tropical forest has overgrown their 
pyramids and trees nine feet in diameter now 
close the entrance to their temples, and nine feet 
of vegetable mold now cover the altars where 
'sacerdotal processions performed thefr mysteri- 
ous rites probably while Cheops was building. 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

AZTEC COSMOGONY AND THEOGONY. 

" By midnight moons o'er moistening- dews, 
In vestments for the chase arrayed, 

The hunter still the deer pursues, 

The hunter and the deer a shade." 

Philip Fkeneau. 

FROM the foregoing chapter we see that 
the ancient Aztec civilization had noth- 
ing in common with the red Indian. 
Buildings, customs and religion linked him to a 
higher civilization, or else prove that he pos- 
sessed the germs of self -evolution, enabled him to 
cope with the great unknown, and single-handed 
to civilize himself. The latter process will be 
hard to believe, the former will be hard to prove; 
but for argument we will take a hasty glance at 
other nations whose history corresponds most 
closely with the ancient inhabitants of Mexico. 
The Chaldeans, according to Berosus, held 
that the world is periodically destroyed by 
deluges and conflagrations. They believed that 
the deluges were caused by the conjunction of 
the planets in Capricorn, and the conflagrations 
by conjunction in Cancer. The Chaldean phi- 
losophers had also their Annus Magnus or great 
year, at the end of which the present terrestrial 
and cosmical order would terminate by fire and 
afterwards be renewed. 



Aztec Cosmogony and Theogony. 323 

The ancient Scj'thiam believed that the world 
undergoes revolution both by fire and by water. 
The Egyptians believed that the earth would 
flourish through the interval expressed by the 
Annus Jfagnus or great year, a cycle, as with 
the Chaldeans, composed of revolutions of the 
sun and moon, and terminating when they re- 
turned together to the some sign whence they 
set out. At the end of each cycle the earth 
was supposed to be destroyed by fire or water, 
and to be renovated for the abode of man. The 
Hindoo cosmogony taught the doctrine of secular 
catastrophes and renovations. Water is then 
introduced, over which moves Brahma, the 
creator. Brahma then causes dry land to appear 
and vivifies the earth in succession with plants, 
animals and man, then he sleeps 4320 millions of 
years — a day for Brahma, and then the earth is 
destro3?"ed by fire. The fire is finally quenched 
by rain which falls a hundred years and inun- 
dates heaven and earth. The breath of Vishnu 
next becomes a strong wind by which the clouds 
are dispersed, and Deity in the form of Brahma 
awakes from his serpent couch on the deep and 
renews the world, and sleeps again another day. 
The power of Brahrna is thus outlined by Em- 
erson : 



" If the red slayer thinks he slays. 
Or if the slain thinks he is slain, 

They know not well the subtle ways 
I keep, and pass, and turn again. 

" Far or forgot, to me is near, 

Shadow and sunshine are the same ; 
The vanished gods to me appear, 

And one to me are shame and fame. 



324 Land Without Chimneys. 

" They reckon ill who leave me out. 

When nie they fly I am the wings; 
I am the doubter and the doubt, 

And I the hymn the Erahman sings. 

" The strong god pines for my abode, 
And pine in vain the sacred seven ; 

But thou, meek lover of the good, 

Find me and turn thy back on heaven." 

The Jews also hold a prophecy that the world 
was to endure 2000 years before the flood, 2000 
under the law and 2000 under the Messi'h, and 
then to be destroyed by water, and a large part 
of the Christian world accepts the same today. 

Orpheus and Menander, early Greek poets who 
lived ia the twilight of Greek civilization, repro- 
duce the myth of the Annus Magnus, and teach 
that the earth is to be destroyed at the completion 
of the cycle. In the Sybilline books, 1300 years 
before our era, this faith is shadowed and the 
world is destined to endure ten ages, the first of 
which is the Golden Age. After a renovation 
by fire the Golden Age will return, when, ac- 
cording to Virgil, the serpent will perish; the 
earth will produce her crops spontaneously; the 
kid will no longer fear the lion; the grape will 
be borne upon the thorn-bush, and scarlet and 
yellow and royal purple will become the native 
colors of the woolly fleece : 

it Tpsctilaete domum referent distent a cnpellm 
libera; nee magnos net unit armenta leoncs. 
I psa tibi blnndos f undent cunabnln Jlores; 
Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba ueneni 
Occidet; Assyrian! vulgo nascetur amomum. 



. Aztec Cosmogony and Theogony. 325 

Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista, 
Inculiisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva, 
Et durai qucrcus sudabunt roscida mella.^ 

According to Winchell, the Stoics got the 
same doctrine from the Phoenicians, and in 
speaking of the restoration after the conflagra- 
tion, use the same term we find in the Scriptures, 
though written many hundred years earlier. 
Chrysippus calls it " Apocatastasis " — restitu- 
tion — as St. Peter does in the Acts. Marcus 
Antoninus several times calls it " Palingenesia " 
— regeneration — as our Savior does in Matthew, 
and Paul in his epistle to Titus. The Pythago- 
reans, who taught the transmigration of souls, 
had the same ideas regarding the revolutions as 
had the Stoics. Plato taught the same, and 
Aristotle alone of all the ancient philosopers, 
taught the immortality of the soul and a contin- 
uance of the present order of things. 

Among the Arabians, the story of the Phoenix 
is an allegory of the earth. This bird of fable 
no sooner crumbles to ashes than she rises again 
in more than pristine beauty. They have a 
similar story of the eagle which goes to the sun 
to renew its strength, and David alludes to the 
myth in the Psalms where he says: "Thy 
youth is renewed like the eagle's, " — a passage 
which in the Chaldee language reads: "Thou 
shalt renew thy youth like the eagle in the 
world to come." The Persians represent their 
god, Fire, as the final avenger of the earth. The 
Aztecs, according to Humboldt, felt the curios- 
ity common to man in every stage of civilization, 
to lift the veil which covers the mysterious past 
and the awful future. They sought relief like 



326 Land Without Chimneys. 

the natio s of the old world, from the oppressive 
idea of eternity, by breaking it up into distinct 
periods or cycles of time, each of several thous- 
and years. There were four of these cycles, 
and at the end of each, by the agency of one of 
the elements, the human family was swept from 
the earth, and the sun blotted from the heavens, 
to be rekindled again by sacred fire. 

The great feast of the "renewal of fire" began 
on the last day of the Sothic period of fifty-two 
years, when the last fragment of time lost by 
leap year had been made up. In the evening 
the fire was extinguished throughout the valley, 
and all the earthen vessels were broken in prep- 
aration for the end of the world. At this time 
every one was in terrible suspense, fearing he 
had seen the sun for the last time. The whole 
empire was a prey to anxiety, and the people 
stood on the temples watching the mountain 
tops, where bonfires would be lighted if the 
gods showed themselves merciful. Then pro- 
cessions of priests marched to the mountain so as 
to arrive at midnight, when they solemnly 
awaited the turn of the night which would as- 
sure them that the sun would rise once more and 
continue fifty-two years to the end of the next 
cycle. When the critical hour had passed, a 
priest with two sticks and a rotary motion of 
the hands produced the sacred fire. Then a 
funeral pyre was raised and the victims sacri- 
ficed. Then an extraordinary activity fol- 
lowed the despondency, and every one lighted 
his torch from the funeral pile and hastened to 
his dwelling, and couriers with the sacred fire 
spread through all the empire and the new blaze 
was kindled in every hearth and on every temple 



Aztec Cosmogony and TJieogony. 327 

top, and they were happy for they had fifty-two 
years more to live. The thirteen days comple- 
mentary to the cycle — intended to make the solar 
and civil years agree — were spent in whitewash- 
ing and renewing their furniture for .the new 
cycle. 

The Aztecs believed in the periodical de- 
struction of the world and had a tradition of the 
flood, and their idea of the re-peopling of the 
earth very nearly coincides with Jewish script- 
ures. The following is a translation of the 
Popol Vuh, or National Book of the Quiches of 
Guatemala; "There was not yet a single man; 
•not an animal ; neither birds, nor fishes, nor 
crabs, nor wood, nor stones, nor ravines, nor 
forests; only the sky existed. The face of the 
land was not seen; there was only the silent sea 
and the sky. There was not yet a body, naught 
to attach itself to another; naught that bal- 
anced itself; naught that made a soand in the 
sky. There was nothing that stood upright; 
naught there was but the peaceful sea — the sea, 
silent and solitary in its limits; for there was 
nothing that was. * * * Those who fecun- 
dated, those who give life, are upon the waters 
like a growing light. * * * While thej^ con- 
sulted, the day broke; and at the moment of 
dawn, man appeared. While they consulted, 
the earth grew. Thus verily, took place the 
creation as the earth came into being. 'Earth' 
said they ; and the earth existed. Like a fog, 
like a cloud, was the formation ; as huge fishes 
rise in the water, so rose the mountains ; and in 
a moment the high mountains existed." 

This is the account of the first creation, and 
what follows, refers to the fourth and last crea- 



328 Land Without Chimneys. 

tion. — "Hear, now, when it was first thought of 
man, and of what man should be formed. At 
that time spake he who gives life, and he who 
gives form, the Maker and Moulder, named 
Tepen, Gucumatz ; 'The day draws near; the 
work is done; the supporter, the servant is en- 
nobled; he is the sun of light, the child of white- 
ness; man is honored; the race of man is upon 
the earth.' So they spake." * * * Immedi- 
ately they began to speak of making our first 
mother and our father. Only of yellow corn 
and white corn were they flesh, and the sub- 
stance of the arms and legs of man. They were 
called simply beings, formed and fashioned ; 
they had neither mother nor father; we call 
them simply men. 

Woman did not bring them forth, nor were 
they born of the Builder and Moulder, by Him 
who fecundates, and Him who gives being. 
"Thought was in them; they saw; they looked 
around; their vision took in all things; they per- 
ceived the world; they cast their eye from the 
sky to the earth." "Then they were asked by 
the Builder and Moulder 'What think you of 
your being? See }^e not? Understand } r enot? 
Your language, your limbs, are the}'' not good? 
Look around, beneath the heavens ; see ye not 
the mountains and the plains?' 

"Then they looked and saw all there was be- 
neath the heavens. And they gave thanks to 
the Maker and the Moulder, saying ; ' Truly, 
twice, and three times thanks! We have being; 
we have been given a mouth, a lace; we speak, 
we understand, we think, we walk, we feel, and 
we know that which is far and that which is 
near. All great things and small on the earth 



Aztec Cosmogony and Theogony. 329 

and in the sky do we see. Thanks to thee, O 
Maker, O Moulder, that we have been created, 
that we have our being, O our Grandmother, O 
our Grandfather!' "* 

Is there anything more noble in any language 
than these sentiments of untutored beings, 
striving to lift the veil and peer into the beyond ? 
No philosopher in any land ever gave tongue to 
more lofty sentiments, nor approached nearer 
the real truth of divination, and we must re- 
member, these sentiments were not borrowed 
from the Spaniards, but were recorded in the 
native writing of Guatemala, ages before the 
coming of Los Conquestadofs. The Aztec wor- 
shipped many gods, but he also believed in one 
Great God, the "Causer of Causes." To him 
was never an image made. He was reverenced 
under the name of Teotl, but being invisible 
and infinite, they never attempted to make a 
likeness of him, either in idols or in painting. 
They made sacrifice of human beings, but not 
to Teotl. 

I herewith present a prayer, translated from 
the Aztec language by Lucien Biart, and ad- 
dressed to the Unseen God: — "Mighty God, 
thou who givest me life, and whose slave I am, 
grant me the supreme grace of giving me meat 
and drink; grant me the enjoyment of thy 
clemency, that it may support me in my labors 
and in my wants. Have pity on me who live 
sad, poor and abandoned, and since I serve thee 



*Histoire delations civilises du Mexique et de l'Amerique 
centrale,durant les siecles antericurs a Christophe Colomb, ecrite 
surs des documents originaux et entierement mediis, purises aux 
anciennes archives des indigenes, par M. l'Abbe Brasseuer de 
Bourbourg. 4 forts, vol. in-3 raisin avec carte et figures. 



330 



Land Without Chimneys. 



by sweeping thy temple, open to me the hand 
of thy mercy." 

What this lacks of being the Lord's Prayer, 
is hardly worth mentioning. 

All the other ancient nations we have men- 
tioned, had intercourse with one another. The 
Greeks studied in Egypt, and had dealings with 
the Phoenicians. The Jews were taken captives 
to the east and the Hindoos spread to the west, 
so it is not strange that they should all have an 
almost identical cosmogony, but here is a people 
separated by an ocean, having the same belief, 
a knowledge of the art of building, of sculpture 
and of writing. Then how shall we account for 
all this unless we suppose that they had known 
contact with each other in some past age ? Alfred 
Wallace, the great English scientist, says that 
none but the unscientific ever resurrect the 
Atlantis theory, but with the risk of b ing de- 
clared unscientific, I wish to present some facts 
of scientific value, and leave the verdict with 
the reader. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE LOST ATLANTIS. 

"Man's steps are not upon thy paths ; thy fields 
Are not a spoil for him ; thou dost arise 

And shake him from thee; the vile strength he 
wields 
For earth's destruction, thou dost all despise, 
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, 

And send him, shivering in thy playful spray, 
And howling to his gods, where haply lies 

His petty hope in some near port or bay, 

And dash him again to earth — there let him lie." 

THE Story of Atlantis," recorded by Plato 
in his Timaeus, as communicated to Solon 
by the Egyptian priests, has, in the light 
of modern geography, been generally regarded 
as a myth, but within a few years has been re- 
vived, and there are not wanting investigators 
of profound learning who regard it as authentic. 
The following is the translation from the Greek 
of Plato : " Among the great deeds of Athens, 
of which the recollection is preserved in ou* 
books, there is one which should be placed 
above all others. Our books tell that the Athen- 
ians destroyed an army which came across the 
Atlantic Sea, and insolently invaded Europe 
and Asia ; for this sea was then navigable, and 
beyond the strait where you place the Pillars of 
Hercules, there was an island larger than Asia 

331 



332 Land Without Chimneys. 

(Minor) and Lyby a combined. From this island 
one could pass easily to other islands, and from 
these to the continent which lies around the 
Interior Sea. 

"The sea on this side the strait (Gibraltar) of 
which we speak, resembles an harbor with a 
narrow entrance; but there is a genuine sea, and 
the land which surrounds it is a veritable conti- 
nent. In the Island of Atlantis lived three 
kings with great and marvelous power. They 
had under their dominion the whole of Atlantis, 
Beveral other islands and some parts of the conti- 
nent. 

" At one time their power extended into 
Lybya, and into Europe as far as Tyrrhenia 
(Italy), and uniting their whole force, they 
sought to destroy our whole country at a blow; 
but their defeat stopped the invasion and gave 
entire independence to all the countries this side 
the Pillars of Hercules. Afterwards, in one 
day and one fatal night, there came earthquakes 
and inundations which engulfed the warlike 
people. 

"Atlantis disappeared beneath the sea, and 
then that sea became inaccessible so that naviga- 
tion on it ceased on account of the quantity of 
mud the engulfed island left in its place." 

Plutarch, in his life of Solon, relates that 
when the law-giver was in Egypt "he conferred 
with the priests and learned the story of Atlan- 
tis/' 

Diodorus Siculus states that : tk Over against 
Africa lies a very great island, in the vast ocean 
many days' sail from Lybya westward. The 6oil 
there is very fruitful, a great part whereof is 
mountainous, but much likewise champaign, 



The Lost Atlantis. 333 

which is the most sweet and pleasant part, for 
it is watered by several navigable streams, and 
beautiful with many gardens of pleasure, planted 
by divers sorts of trees and an abundance of 
orchards. The towns are adorned with stately 
buildings and banqueting houses, pleasantly 
situated in the gardens and orchards." 

Theopompus who wrote in the fourth century 
B. C. tells substantially the same story, which 
was given by Silenus to the ancient King Midas, 
recorded by Aristotle.* The Gauls possessed 
traditions on the subject, which were collected 
by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived 
in the first century, B. C. This record states 
that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul 
(France). I, The Aborigines; 2, The invaders 
from a distant island, (Atlantis); 3, The Aryan 
Gauls. Marcellus also, in a book on the Ethio- 
pians speaks of several islands lying on the 
Atlantic ocean near Europe, which we may 
undoubtedly identify as the Canaries ; but he 
adds: "The inhabitants of these islands pre- 
serve the memory of a much greater island, 
Atlantis, which had for a long time exercised 
dominion over the smaller ones." 

Now, all these writers most positively state 
that an island did exist west of Africa, and 
was destroyed by a cataclysm. This island could 
not have been very far from the shores of Amer- 
ica, for the tribes of Central America, in Mexico, 
in Venezuela and in British and Dutch Guiana, 
distinctly describe these cataclysms, one by 
water, one by fire and a third by winds. 

Catlin, in his " Lifted and Subsided Rocks in 
America," describes the traditions of such a 

* Aristotle Consolalio ad Appollotiium § 27, P. 137. 



334 Land Without Chimneys. 

cataclysm. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, 
in his " Quatre Lettres sur La Mexique," and his 
" Sources de l'Histoire Primitive du INlexique," 
has translated the " Teo Amoxtli," which is the 
Toltecan mythological history of the cataclysm 
of the Antilles. Catlin found the tradition of 
such a cataclysm among the Indians of North 
America. The Indians farther south state that 
the water was seen coming in waves like moun- 
tains from the east, and of the tens of thousands 
who ran for the high ground of the west, only 
one man, by one authority, and two by another, 
and seven by another, succeeded in reaching high 
ground, and from them sprang the present race 
of Indians. The tribes near the coast distinctly 
describe three cataclysms, water, fire, and winds, 
while those inland were sensible only of the flood 
of waters which ran to the base of the moun- 
tains. * 

"From amidst the thunder and flames which 
came out of the sea, whilst mountains were sink- 
ing and rising, the terror-stricken inhabitants 
sought every expedient of safety. Some fled to 
the mountains, and some launched their rafts and 
canoes upon the turbulent waters, trusting that a 
favorable current might land them upon a hos- 
pitable shore, and thus in the elemental strife 
the ancient civilized people became widely 
dispersed." * 

"The festival of 'Izcalli' was instituted to 
commemorate this terrible calamity, in which 
princes and people humbled themselves before 
the Divinity and besought Him not to renew the 
frightful convulsions/ ' 

* Catlin P. 145. 

* FoBter, Prehistoric Races of the U. S. 



The Lost Atlantis. 335 

It is claimed that by this catastrophe, an area 
larger than the Kingdom of France became en- 
gulfed, including the Lesser Antilles, the exten- 
sive banks at their eastern base, which at that 
date were vast fertile plains, the peninsula of 
Yucatan, Honduras and Guatemala and the great 
estuaries of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 
Mexico. With the peninsula of Yucatan went 
down the splendid cities of Palenque, whose sites 
are now in the ocean bed as well as the bones of 
the inhabitants, and the continent has since risen 
sufficiently to restore the sites of a number of the 
ancient cities, but the people were blotted from 
the face of the earth. There is nothing more re- 
markable than the truthfulness of the traditions 
of North American Indians. For hundreds of 
years tradition has said that the Enchanted Mesa 
in New Mexico had been once inhabited, and 
during the present year, an expedition from the 
Smithsonian Institution explored the Mesa and 
verified the tradition. 

In proof of the Cataclysm and submergence 
of Central America, our modern geographies tell 
us that Old Guatemala was destroyed by a water 
volcano in the sixteenth century, and again in 
the eighteenth by an earthquake. The sea 
shells on both sides the Isthmus of Panama are 
alike, and according to the law of the geographi- 
cal distribution of animals, this could only have 
come about by the Isthmus having at one time 
been submerged, and remaining so long enough 
for the intermingling of species and being raised 
again, and -the fossils on both sides support the 
hypothesis. The situation of Atlantis, west of 
Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, would be so near to 
Central America that any disturbance, like the 



336 Land Without Chimneys. 

one described by Plato, would be compelled to 
affect Central America in the manner described 
by the traditions of the natives. 

The nearest lands west of Africa, where Plato 
locates Atlantis, are the Canary Islands, the 
nearest being fifty miles from Africa, and the 
whole group extending three hundred miles, and 
are separated from the mainland by a channel 
more than five thousand feet deep. Of all the 
oceanic islands (not continental) discovered by 
Europeans, the Canaries alone were inhabited. 
Here they found the Guanches, now extinct, 
who at the time of their discovery were not 
aware that a continent existed in their neighbor- 
hood, for, on being asked by the missionaries 
how they came to this archipelago, they ans- 
wered: "God placed us on these islands, and 
then forsook and forgot us." 

Now who were the Guanches? Their islands 
had never been connected with Africa, because 
the channel between them is a mile deep, and 
Wallace in his "Island Life" has proved that 
any island surrounded by water more than five 
thousand feet deep is of volcanic origin. If 
craniometry is a reliable science the Guanches 
were not savages, but superior to the Egyptians. 
According to Prof. Flower's measurements, the 
skull of the English of low grade contains one 
thousand five hundred and forty-two cubic centi- 
meters, the Guanches one thousand four hundred 
and ninety-eight, Japanese one thousand four 
hundred and eighty-six, Chinese one thousand 
four hundred and twenty-four, Italians one 
thousand four hundred and seventy-five, and the 
ancient Egyptians one thousand four hundred 
and sixty-four. That the remnant of a race 



The Lost Atlantis. 337 

found in mid-ocean should have a better devel- 
oped brain than many continental nations, is sig- 
nificant, and if the Guanches were a part of the 
inhabitants of Atlantis, we can easily understand 
their ability to make war and subdue their neigh- 
bors as related by Plato. 

The late Sir Anders Retzius, of Stockholm, 
the learned authority on craniometry says : "The 
Dolichocephali of America are nearly related to 
the Guanches of the Canary Islands, and to the 
Atlantic population of Africa, — Moors, Turar- 
icks, Copts, etc. — and the same kind of skull is 
found in the Canary Islands in front of the Afri- 
can Coast, and on the Islands in the Caribbean 
Sea on the opposite coast which faces Africa. 
The color of the skin in the population on both 
sides of the Atlantic is reddish brown, resembling 
tanned leather ; the hair is the same ; the features 
of the face and the build of the frame as I am led 
to believe, presenting the same analogy."* 

And now as to their dispersion. When Col- 
umbus set sail from Palos in J 492, he steered 
direct for the Canary Islands for repairs, and 
when he left the Canaries, without any effort of 
his own, the trade winds carried his vessels 
straight to the West Indies, and these winds 
blow in this direction all the time. In December 
1731 a ship started from Teneriffe with a cargo 
of wine for one of the western Canaries, and 
having only six men on board the ship became 
unmanageable, and the trade winds carried them 
straight to Trinidad on the Island of Cuba. 
While Atlantis was sinking, some of the inhabi- 
tants likely escaped on rafts and boats, and be- 

* Present State of Ethnology in Relation to the Form of the skull. 
Smithsonian Report 1860 P. 264 et seq. 



338 Land Without Chimneys. 

ing exactly in the location whence Columbus and 
the Teneriffe ship were, they had nothing to do 
but to wait, and the trade winds would take 
them to the West Indies and Yucatan and Cen- 
tral America. Wc can now easily see why the 
oldest civilization of America is in Central 
America. Some of the immigrants stopped in (he 
West Indies, for the aborigines Columbus found 
■there spoke the same language as the Mayas and 
Caribs of Yucatan speak today. Some stopped 
in South America, for Dr. Lund, the Swedish 
naturalist, found in the bone caves of Minas 
Geraes, Brazil, human skulls identical with those 
of Mexico. This may possibly account for the 
superior civilization of Peru, where the ingrafted 
population would amalgamate with the native 
races and produce those wonderful paved roads 
the Spaniards found there. 

Of course there will be objections to this hypo- 
thesis, and we will now proceed to answer the 
objections. 

Dr. Wait/., in his '/Anthropology of Primitive 
Peoples" says: "The first elements of civilization 
as far as history reaches, always appear as com- 
municated from one people to another, and of no 
people can it be proved how, where and when 
they have become civilized by their own in- 
herent power." 

If this he true, then the ancient Mexican must 
have learned civilization from some other people, 
and we know I he red Indian had none to spare. 
Winchell in his genealogical charts, represents 
the entire peopling of the Pacific Slope from 
Alaska to Chili by Mongoloid branches. The 
world knows that Mongolian civilization lias 
always been fossilized and the race is absolutely 



The Lost Atlantis. 339 

devoid of civilizing qualities. Their state is 
founded upon the worship of their ancestors, 
and their exalted egotism has for ages resisted 
every attempt to force advancement among 
them. To say that the Mongols crossed Behring 
Strait and gave origin to the Esquimaux is en- 
tirely compatible, for the Esquimaux are just 
about the calibre a Chinese colony of that date 
would produce. To say that Mongols are the 
source of Aztec civilization and Inca sun-wor- 
ship is to propound an anthropological paradox. 
From Alaska to the ancient confines of Mexico, 
there is not one stone left to acknowledge the 
hundreds of years of Esquhno and Indian occu- 
pancy, so we cannot expect light from that 
source. 

Separated from Africa by a channel only fifty 
miles wide, we may with justice assume that 
the civilization of the continent of Atlantis and 
that of Egypt was very similar. Egypt is the 
only land of the ancient world where pyramids 
are found, and on a direct line with the trade 
winds we find pyramids in Yucatan, Guatemala, 
Honduras and Mexico. In Egypt we find the 
temples emblazoned with hieroglyphics chiseled 
in the solid rock, describing one of the oldest 
civilizations in the world. In Uxmal, Mexico, 
Palenque and Copan are tablets, friezes, bas-re- 
liefs, facades and hieroglyphics, though inferior 
to the Egyptian in mimetic art, still of the 
highest order, considering this to be the product 
of the neolithic age, and the length of time since 
the separation from the home roof-tree. The 
Egyptians were the only ones of the ancient'peo- 
ple who embalmed their dead. According to 
the French Historian, Lucien Biart, the Zapo- 



340 Land Without Chimneys. 

tecs and Chicimecs of the Mexican Valley 
embalmed their chiefs, and if we may believe 
this same author, the caves of the Cordilleras are 
vast museums as full of interest as the cata- 
combs of Rome. That the Americans mummi- 
fied their dead is proved by mummies having 
been found in Peru and in the northwestern part 
of Patagonia. Dr. Aq. Eied, the discoverer, has 
deposited one in the museum of Ratisbon, Bava- 
ria, and another was sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution.* 

This mummy led to the remark of Professor 
Alexander Winchell in his "Pre-Adamites." 
"The humid atmosphere, unlike that of Peru, 
leads to the inference that the mummification 
of the dead was practiced under some controlling 
motive which must have been inherited from 
ancestors dwelling in a more propitious clime, 
and which even the dripping meteorology of 
Patagonia was insufficient to eradicate." 

The Egyptians were accurate astrologers and 
astronomers. They accurately calculated the 
eclipses and the reappearance of stars whose 
journey would require over a thousand years, 
and the pyramids are set to the cardinal points 
in Egypt and in Mexico. In the City of Mex- 
ico is the great calendar stone of solid porphyry 
weighing fifty tons. It was brought many 
leagues across a broken country, without beasts 
of burden, and Bustamente states that a thous- 
and men were employed in its transportation* 
From it we learn that the Aztecs or Toltecs 
were astronomers and astrologers and calculated 
eclipses and knew the solstices of the sun. They 
divided the year into eighteen months of twenty 

* Vi.l. Aq. Hied, Smithsonian Annual Report, 1SG2, pp. 87, 12& 



The Lost Atlantis. 341 

days each, and, like the Egyptians, had five 
complementary days to make out the three 
hundred and sixty-five, and every fifty-two 
years they added thirteen (twelve and a half) 
days for a leap year to make the solar and civil 
years agree. Like the Persians and Egyptians, 
a cycle of fifty-two years or "An Age," was 
represented by a serpent, so prominent in myth- 
ology. Their astrological year was divided into 
months of thirteen days each, and there were 
thirteen years in their indications, which con- 
tained each, three hundred and sixty-five periods 
of thirteen days. 

It is also worthy of note that their number of 
lunar months of thirteen days was contained in 
a cycle of fifty-two years, with the intercalation of 
thirteen days (twelve and a half,) should corres- 
pond exactly with the number of years in a great 
Sothic Period of the Egyptians, viz. 1461. Is 
it reasonable to suppose that this strange affinity 
with Egyptian civilization was accidental, or 
that a Turanian people independently evolved 
itself into a counterpart of Hamitic Berbers ? 
The stone is not modern; it is not written in 
Aztec characters but in Toltec, a people whom 
the Aztecs supplanted, and they claimed that 
the knowledge was not original^ with them, but 
acquired from the Mayas who had preceded 
them in Yucatan. The ideographic paintings 
of the Aztecs preserve traditions of the creation 
of the world, a universal flood, the confusion of 
tongues and the dispersion of man ; and that a 
single man and woman saved themselves in a 
boat which landed at Mount Colhuacan, and 
that all their children were born deaf and re- 
mained so until a dove, one day, from the top 



342 Land Without Chimneys. 

of a tree, taught them each in a different tongue. 

All Aztec traditions, without exception, insist 
that they came from a far-off island called 
"Azatlan" (probably Atlantis.) Dr. Lapham, 
in his "Antiquities of Wisconsin," claims that 
the Aztecs were identical with the Mound- 
builders, and locates Azatlan in Wisconsin, on 
account of the large number of effigy mounds 
there; and Dr. Foster in his "Prehistoric Races" 
pictures these mounds called Azatlan ; but the 
Aztec painting published by Gemelle Carera in 
his Giro del 3fondo, has hieroglyphics repre- 
senting their departure from Azatlan in canoes 
and on rafts, after their confusion of tongues, 
and a teocalli, or temple by the side of a palm 
tree, of which neither condition can be true of 
Wisconsin. 

Max Muller, the greatest authority on philol- 
ogy, says that of all indices to the mysteries of the 
ancient world, language is the most satisfactory, 
and the only evidence worth listening to with 
regard to ante-historic periods. II' we class the 
languages of the world into groups according to 
cognation, we find the -Aryan languages com- 
prising the Indian, Persian (Sanskrit), Hellenic, 
Latin group (Italian, Wallacian, Provencal, 
French, Portugese and Spanish), Slavonic (Rus- 
sian), Teutonic (English), and the Keltic or 
Welsh, of which the oldest is the Sanskrit and 
Zend. The Semitic group comprises the He- 
brew, Phoenician, Assyrian and Arabic, while 
the Babylonian and Chinese stand alone. The 
Aryan and Semitic form a class known as (he 
inflectional^ and are the only languages of the 
world that are adapted to and possess a litera- 
ture, and that have advanced the progress 



The Lost Atlantis. 343 

of the world in religion, arts or sciences. 
Though springing from a common center, they 
have grammatical structures that prevent the 
one being derived from the other. The Semitic 
branched southward and westward, and was the 
language of the Chaldee, Arab, Hebrew and 
Egyptian, the latter sometimes classed as Hanii- 
tic. The Chinese is an organic language, 
monosyllabic, and destitute of all grammar. 
The nouns have no number, declension or cases, 
and the verbs are without conjugation through 
moods, tenses and persons. All Mongoloid that 
reached America must have done so by B.ehring 
Strait, and all such races, or descendants of 
such races, would undoubtedly have kept a trace 
of their parental language. If the Aztecs were 
derived from Mongoloids, we should expect a 
monosyllabic language, but on the contrary, the 
Aztec language has more diminutives and aug- 
mentatives than the Italian, and its substantives 
and verbs are more numerous than in any other 
language. 

Another proof of its wealth is, that when mis- 
sionaries first went among them, they found no 
trouble in expressing abstract ideas like religion, 
virtue, etc. The consonants most used are 1, t, 
x, z ; next the sound of tl and tz. L is of most 
frequent occurrence, but is never found at the 
beginning of a word. The Aztec language, 
sweet and harmonious to the ear, has no sharp or 
nasal sounds; the penultimate of most of its 
words is long. The language is rich, exact and 
expressive, as is proven in the "Natural His- 
tory" by Dr. Hernandez, who describes twelve 
hundred plants, two hundred birds, many quad- 
rupeds, reptiles, insects, metals, etc., and was 



3J4 Land Without Chimneys. 

able to call each by a separate name, given by 
the Indians. Poets and orators there were by 
the hundred, and their written inaugurals make 
as interesting reading as we hear from many of 
our legislators, many of which were translated 
by the French scholar, Lucien Biart, who died 
since these pages were begun. 

If Max Muller is correct, then there can be no 
kinship between the Mongols and Aztecs, and if 
they ever had communication with other people, 
it must have been from the east. The Sanskrit 
word for God, is Devan; the Latin, Dens; the 
Greek, Oeoo; and the Aztec, Teotl. This simi- 
larity of sound and spelling might be purely ac- 
cidental, and on the other hand, it might have 
something of a long kinship to identify it. The 
Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration of souls 
was a ruling passion with the Aztec. This may 
have been the fruition of all polytheistic relig- 
ions, or it might have been the retention of pri- 
mordial culture, for we know the Egyptian 
embalmed his dead, lest the dissolution of the 
body would destroy the soul also. 

The greatest desecration that could befall the 
ancient Greeks and Romans was the refusal of 
burial, because the soul of him thus uncared 
for wandered thenceforth as a disembodied 
ghost. 

We read in Homer's Iliad how the deadPatro- 
clus comes bo the sleeping Achilles, and tries in 
vain bo grasp him with loving arms, but the 
soul, like smoke, Hits away below earth. How 
Hermotimos the seer used to go out of his body, 
till at last, the soul, coming back from a spirit 
journey, found that his wife had burnt his body 
on a funeral pile, and that he had become a 



The Lost Atlantis. 345 

bodyless ghost. How Odysseus visits the blood- 
less ghosts in Hades, and the shadows of the 
dead in Purgatory wondered to see the body of 
Dante there, which stopped the sunlight and 
cast a shadow. 

How, in Virgil's ^n»id, the love-maddened 
Queen Dido could wish no greater curse to be- 
fall JEneas, than that his body should lie un- 
buried on the plain, and even the old boatman, 
Charon, in Hades, refused to ferry across the 
River Styx the shades of any who lacked burial 
while on earth. 

This idea of the phantom life of souls as 
shades and shadows, constitutes the higher 
philosophy of the transcendental metaphysics of 
the ancient Greeks, whose exponent was Pytha- 
goras. Religious fervor was strong in the Aztec, 
and from his devotion to formality, Atlantis 
must have been the home of ceremonial religion. 
The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfac- 
tory etymology in any language known to 
Europe. These are not Greek and cannot be 
referred to any European language, but in the 
Nahuatl or Toltecan language we find the radical 
a, atl, which signifies water, man and top of the 
head. From these come a series of words, such 
as atlan, on the border of, or amid the water, from 
which comes the adjective Atlantic. Therefore 
the Atlantic Ocean must have received its name 
from the'continent* Atlantis before the cataclysm. 
We have also Atlaca, to combat, to be in agony. 
It also means to hurl, to dart from the water, 
and in the preterit makes Atlaz. From the 
island of Atlantis, the Atlas mountain in 
northern Africa would seem to the inhabitants 
to be hurled out of the water, hence its name 



346 Land Without Chimneys. 

was probably given by these same people, as the 
word occurs in no other language. 

On the map of Mexico today are more than a 
hundred towns with the same combination of 
letters of oil or Ian which shows that the combi- 
nation is an essential part of the Aztec language. 
There are many traditions that are receiving light 
from the nineteenth century that crystalizes them 
into accepted history. For twenty-six centuries 
has the siege of Troy stood out in profile as the 
model epic of the world, but, on account of its 
antiquity, of doubted veracity. Now Dr. Schlie- 
man's excavations seem destined yet to find the 
funeral pyre of Patroclus, surrounded by the re- 
mains of Trojan captives. And even later, the 
French archaeologist M. Marcel Dieulafay has 
brought to light the ancient city of Susa, and we 
may even now behold the Palace of Ai taxerxes 
Mnemon, whose foundations were laid by Xerxes 
I. 485 B. C. ; and now after twenty-three centu- 
ries, the student may take his Bible in his hand, 
turn to the Book of Esther and read, while the 
guide in the ancient capital of Persia points to 
the spot where Mordecai sat, to that corner where 
Hainan was hanged, and to this court where the 
lovely Esther was crowned queen, and whence 
the sorrowing Vashti departed, as the unfortunate 
Hebe, cup-bearer of Jove, before the victorious 
Ganymede. 

Plato records the sad fate of Atlantis nearly 
five hundred years B. C, and Solom had recor- 
ded it in a poem two hundred years earlier. 
Plato says the expedition against Egypt took 
place during the reign of the Athenian Kings, 
Cecrops and Erectheus, and, according to the 
"Marble of Paros," these Kings ruled J 582 B C. 



The Lost Atlantis, 



347 



and 1409 B. C, which is not a great deal earlier 
than the siege of Troy. Though this is very an- 
cient history, we have as much right to believe 
Plato's history as Homer's, if it can be well es- 
tablished. 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg is the great- 
est authority on the translation of Aztec litera- 
ture, and he maintains that the oldest certain 
date in the Nahuatl or Toltecan language reaches 
back to 955 B. C, and as the Toltecs dwelt some 
time in the country of Zibalba before they dis- 
possessed the Colhuas, their migration must have 
begun more than a thousand years B. C. The 
Colhuas were the remnant of those who had 
escaped the terrible calamity of Atlantis. To, 
those who reject the theory here offered, I would 
say the field is large and inviting to any whose 
insight into the past can help solve the problems 
of the origin of the ancient Mexicans. 




CHAPTER XXV 



CONCLUSION. 

" And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked 
How first this world and face of things began, 
And what before thy memory was done 
From the beginning." 

THE existence of the Continent of Atlantis 
is an hypothesis, but so was the existence 
of Lemuria, and there are scientists today 
of international repute who firmly believe that 
a continent once existed in the Indian Ocean 
between Madagascar and India, and the proof is 
not wanting. 

On the island of Madagascar are found thirty- 
three species of monkeys called Lemurs, which are 
not found in Africa, nor in any other part of the 
globe except Ceylon, India, and the Malay Arch- 
ipelago. Because these Lemurs are found only 
in that region, Sclater, the English Zoologist, 
has called the sunken continent "Lemuria." 
Between Madagascar and India are a number of 
submerged banks of less than a thousand fathoms 
deep, which a slight elevation would make com- 
paratively easy stages of communication between 
Madagascar and India for all animals. An 
elevation of three hundred feet would unite Java, 
Sumatra and Borneo, into one great peninsula of 
the Asiatic continent. 

348 



Conclusion. 349 

The island of Madagascar is two hundred and 
fifty miles wide and a thousand miles long, and 
is separated from Africa by the Mozambique 
channel, only two hundred and fifty miles wide. 
Africa has monkeys, apes and baboons; also 
lions, leopards, hyenas, zebras, rhinocen, ele- 
phants, buffalo, giraffes, and many species of 
deer and antelope ; but strange to say, not one 
of these is found in Madagascar, or anything 
like unto them, and yet Madagascar is only 
two hundred and fifty miles away. There are 
in Madagascar, according to Wallace's " Island 
Life," and Dr. Hartlaub's "Birds of Madagas- 
car," one hundred species of land birds, and 
only four or five have any kindred in Africa ; 
but in Malaysia and India we find identical 
species, and on the islands of Mauritius, Rod- 
riguez, Bourbon and the Seychelles group, we 
find so many curious birds without wings with 
kindred in Madagascar, we know that the islands 
at some time have been connected, else how 
could birds without wings get from one to the 
other? There are five species of lizards which 
are found in Mauritius, Bourbon, Rodriguez and 
Ceylon, and even to the Phillipine Islands. 

The Mascarine group contains a thousand 
and fifty-eight species of plants, of which sixty- 
six are found in Africa but not in Asia, and 
eighty-six are found in Asia but not in Africa, 
showing a closer relationship to Asia than to 
Africa. Milne-Edwards has even surmised a 
Mascarine continent, to include all the outlaying 
islands around Madagascar. Beccari, in his 
work on the distribution of palms, after noting 
the difficulty of the dispersion of the fruits, 
reaches the conclusion that, when we find two 



350 Land Without Chimneys. 

congeneric species of palms on widely separated 
lands, it is reasonable to infer that the lands have 
once been united. On the Mascarine Islands, in 
Ceylon, the Nicobars, at Singapore, on the 
Malaccas, New Guinea, in Australia and Poly- 
nesia, occur various species of Phycosperma, all 
very difficult of dissemination, and hence could 
only have reached their present habitat by 
being connected by intervening lands now in 
the ocean bed. 

Winchell in his " Pre-Adamites" states among 
his principles : 1. The doctrine of Pre-Adamites 
is entirely consonant with the fundamental prin- 
ciples of Biblical Christianity; 2. A chain of 
profound relationship runs through the constitu- 
tion of all races, and they may be genealog- 
ically connected; 3. The initial point of the 
genealogical line may be located in Lemuria. 
Peschell in his " Races of Man," says : "This 
continent which would correspond with the 
Indian Ethiopia of Claudius Ptolemaus, is 
required by anthropology, for we can then 
conceive how the inferior populations of Aus- 
tralia and India, the Papuans of the East 
Indian Islands, and lastly, the Negroes, would 
thus be enabled to reach their present abode 
by dry land. The selection of this spot is 
far more orthodox than it might at first glance 
appear, for we here find ourselves in the neigh- 
borhood of the four enigmatical rivers of the 
Scriptural Eden, — in the vicinity of the Nile, 
Euphrates, Tigris and Indus. By the gradual 
submergence of Lemuria, the expulsion from 
Paradise would also be inexorably accom- 
plished." To this he adds the argument of 
such ecclesiastical writers as Lactautius, the 



Conclusion. 351 

venerable Bede, Hrabanus Maurus, Cosmos In- 
diclopleustes, and the anonymous geographer of 
Ravenna. 

I go thus into detail to show that men believe 
in the submerged continent of Lemuria, though 
they have never seen it, but cannot explain the 
presence of plants and animals on widely sep- 
arated islands except by supposing they were 
once connected. If we could establish a similar 
relationship with Atlantis, the matter would ex- 
plain itself. From the presence of rock salt, 
sand and sea-shells on the desert of Sahara, we 
know that it was once the bottom of the ocean, 
and the cause of its rising might have been the 
submergence of Lemuria, or vice versa, and the 
submergence of Atlantis may have had a counter 
result elsewhere. Charles Martins says that: 
"By the rules of hydrography and botany, the 
Azores, the Canaries and Madeira are the re- 
mains of a great continent which formerly united 
Europe to North America." * 

However, Atlantis does not have to stand al- 
together on theory. The governments of the 
world have gone about it in a practical manner, 
which is worthy of notice. 

In 1873, Her Majesty's ship Challenge made 
soundings in the Atlantic off the north coast of 
Africa, and in 1874 the German frigate, Gazelle, 
made further soundings in the same regions, 
and in 1877 Commodore Gorringe of the 
U. S. sloop Gettysburg, discovered, about a 
hundred miles from the Strait of Gibraltar, an 
immense bed of pink coral in thirty-two fathoms 
of water. Corals never work in water deeper 
than two hundred feet, so at last here i3 proof 

* ".Rente ties Deux Mondcs." March, 18G7. 



